Kentucky in American Letters, 1784-1912. Vol. 1 of 2

by John Wilson Townsend · English · Gutenberg #39406 · 756,839 chars · public domain (US)

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Kentucky in American Letters, 1784-1912. Vol. 1 of 2

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.

Title: Kentucky in American Letters, 1784-1912. Vol. 1 of 2

Author: John Wilson Townsend

Author of introduction, etc.: James Lane Allen

Release date: July 6, 2012 [eBook #39406]
Most recently updated: December 1, 2013

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39406

Credits: Produced by Brian Sogard, Douglas L. Alley, III and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive/Million Book Project)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KENTUCKY IN AMERICAN LETTERS, 1784-1912. VOL. 1 OF 2 ***

Produced by Brian Sogard, Douglas L. Alley, III and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive/Million Book Project)

KENTUCKY IN
AMERICAN LETTERS

OTHER WORKS BY MR. TOWNSEND

_Richard Hickman Menefee_. 1907
_Kentuckians in History and Literature_. 1907
_The Life of James Francis Leonard_. 1909
_Kentucky: Mother of Governors_. 1910
_Lore of the Meadowland_. 1911

KENTUCKY IN
AMERICAN LETTERS

1784-1912

BY
JOHN WILSON TOWNSEND

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
JAMES LANE ALLEN

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I

THE TORCH PRESS
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA
NINETEEN THIRTEEN

_Of this edition one thousand sets have been printed, of which
this is number_

241

[Illustration: (Printers' Union Logo)]

To My Mother

INTRODUCTION

Mr. Townsend's fellow countrymen must feel themselves to be put under
a beautiful obligation to him by his work entitled _Kentucky in
American Letters_. He has thus fenced off for the lovers of New World
literature a well watered bluegrass pasture of prose and verse, which
they may enter and range through according to their appetites for its
peculiar green provender and their thirst for the limestone spring.
This strip of pasture is a hundred years long; its breadth may not be
politely questioned!

For the backward-looking and for the forward-looking students of
American literature, not its merely browsing readers, he has wrought a
service of larger and more lasting account. Whether his patiently done
and richly crowned work be the first of its class and kind, there is
slight need to consider here: fitly enough it might be a pioneer, a
path-blazer, as coming from the land of pioneers, path-blazers.

But whether or not other works of like character be already in the
field of national observation, it is inevitable that many others soon
will be. There must in time and in the natural course of events come
about a complete marshalling of the American commonwealths, especially
of the older American commonwealths, attended each by its women and
men of letters; with the final result that the entire pageant of our
literary creativeness as a people will thus be exhibited and reviewed
within those barriers and divisions, which from the beginning have
constituted the peculiar genius of our civilization.

When this has been done, when the States have severally made their
profoundly significant showing, when the evidence up to some century
mark or half-century mark is all presented, then for the first time
we, as a reading and thoughtful self-studying people, may for the
first time be advanced to the position of beginning to understand what
as a whole our cis-Atlantic branch of English literature really is.

Thus Mr. Townsend's work and the work of his fellow-craftsmen are all
stations on the long road but the right road. They are aids to the
marshalling of the American commonwealths at a great meeting-point of
the higher influences of our nation.

Now, already American literature has long been a subject in regard to
which a library of books has been written. The authors of by far the
most of these books are themselves Americans, and they have thus
looked at our literature and at our civilization from within; the
authors of the rest are foreigners who have investigated and
philosophized from the outside. Altogether, native and foreign, they
have approached their theme from divergent directions, with diverse
aims, and under the influence of deep differences in their critical
methods and in their own natures. But so far as the writer of these
words is aware, no one of them either native or foreign has ever set
about the study of American literature, enlightened with the only
solvent principle that can ever furnish its solution.

That solvent principle is contained within a single proposition. That
single proposition is the one upon which our forefathers deliberately
chose to found the civilization of the Anglo-Saxon race in the New
World: that it should not be a civilization of States which were not a
Nation; that it should not be the civilization of a nation without
states; but that it should be a Nation of States.

Now, if any man aspires to draw from American literature the
philosophy of its traits, if he sets it as the goal of his wisdom to
explain its breadth and its narrowness, its plenty here and its lack
there, its color in one place and its pallor in another, let him go
back to the will of the fathers in the foundation of the Republic and
find the explanation of our literature at the basis of our whole
civilization. He will never find it anywhere else. He will find it
there as he there finds the origin of our system of government, of our
system of industry, of our system of political barriers, of our system
of education: in the entire nature of our institutions as derived and
unfolded from the idea that we should be a nation of states. Our
literature--our novels and our poetry--have been as rigorously
included in this development as all the other elements of our life.

For the first time in this way he may come to see a great light; and
with that light shining about him he may be prepared to write the
first history of American literature.

None has yet been written.

[Illustration]

PREFACE

What is a Kentucky book, is the one great question this work has
elicited. Surely a Kentucky book is one written by a Kentuckian about
Kentucky or Kentuckians and printed in Kentucky; surely it is a book
written by a Kentuckian upon any subject under the sun, and published
in any clime; surely it is one written in Kentucky by a citizen of any
other state or country, regardless of the subject or place of
publication, for, "in general, I have regarded the birthplace of a
piece of literature more important than that of the author." But is a
book, though treating of Kentucky or Kentuckians, regardless of its
place of publication, whose author was not born in, nor for any
appreciable period resided in, this state, entitled to be properly
classified as a Kentucky work? The writer has responded in the
negative to this question in the present work.

There have been several noted American authors who have written volumes
about Kentucky or Kentuckians, and they themselves were not natives of
this state, nor resided within its confines. Those early Western
travelers rarely omitted Kentucky from their journeys. The first of
them, F. A. Michaux, published his famous _Travels to the West of the
Alleghany Mountains, in the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee_, at
London, in 1805; two years later F. Cuming's _Tour to the Western
Country, through Ohio and Kentucky_, was printed at Pittsburg; and in
1817 John Bradbury got out the first edition of his now noted _Travels
in the Interior of America_, at London. Bradbury died in 1823 and
to-day lies buried in the cemetery at Middletown, Kentucky, near
Louisville. George W. Ogden's _Letters from the West_ (New Bedford,
1823); W. Bullock's _Sketch of a Journey through the Western States_
(London, 1827); and Tilly Buttrick's _Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries_
(Boston, 1831), round out fairly well that group of Scotchmen,
Englishmen, New Englanders, and what not, who found many interesting
things in Kentucky a hundred years and more ago. Ogden spent two summers
in Kentucky; Bullock owned a river-side tract near Ludlow, Kentucky, and
old Bradbury sleeps in a quiet Kentucky hamlet, but neither of them may
be properly classified as a real Kentuckian.

The Beauchamp-Sharp tragedy of 1825 was the one Kentucky event that
kindled the imaginations of more alien writers than any other happening
in our history. Edgar Allan Poe, William Gilmore Simms, Charles Fenno
Hoffman, G. P. R. James, James Hall, and several others, wrote plays,
novels, and poems based upon this tragedy. In 1832 James Kirke Paulding,
the friend of Washington Irving, published one of the earliest Kentucky
romances, entitled _Westward Ho!_ which name he got from the old
Elizabethan drama of John Webster and Thomas Dekker. Two years after the
appearance of Paulding's tale, William A. Caruthers, the Virginia
novelist, printed _The Kentuckian in New York_; and in the same year
Thomas Chandler Haliburton ("Sam Slick"), put forth one of his earliest
works, _Kentucky, a Tale_ (London, 1834). In 1845 Charles Winterfield's
_My First Days With the Rangers_, appeared, to be followed the next year
by William T. Porter's _A Quarter Race in Kentucky_.

These writers hardly did more than point the way to Kentucky for Mrs.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose world-famous novel, _Uncle Tom's Cabin_
(Boston, 1852), was set against a background of slave-holding
Kentucky. This is the most famous example our literature affords of a
writer of another state or country coming to Kentucky for the
materials out of which to build a book.

In 1860 David Ross Locke, the Ohio journalist and satirist, discovered
the _Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby_, postmaster at "Confedrit X Roads,
Kentucky," and his political satires on Kentucky, the _Nasby Letters_,
tickled the readers of his paper, _The Toledo Blade_, through many
years. These alleged communications from poor Petroleum may be read
to-day in Locke's _Swingin' Round the Cirkel_, and _Ekkoes from
Kentucky_. J. G. Marshall's _The Outlaw Brothers_ (New York, 1864); Miss
Martha Remick's _Millicent Halford: a Tale of the Dark Days of Kentucky
in the year 1861_ (Boston, 1865); two novels by Edward Willett, entitled
_Kentucky Border Foes_, and _Old Honesty: a Tale of the Early Days of
Kentucky_, both of which were issued in the late sixties; Constance F.
Woolson's _Two Women_ (New York, 1877), and Mrs. Anna Bowman Dodd's
story, _Glorinda_ (Boston, 1888), concludes the group of writers of the
comparatively modern school who did not linger long in the "meadowland,"
but who found it good literary soil, and helped themselves accordingly.

In recent years Mr. Winston Churchill's _The Crossing_, Dr. James Ball
Naylor's _The Kentuckian_, Mr. Augustus Thomas's _The Witching Hour_,
and the Kentucky lyrics of Mrs. Alice Williams Brotherton, the Ohio
poet, have drawn fresh attention to Kentucky as a background for
literary productions, although they are written by those who cannot
qualify as Kentuckians. But to claim any of these writers for the
Commonwealth, would be to make one's self absurd. Dr. Naylor's lines
upon this point are _apropos_:

I must admit--although it hurts!--
That I was born unlucky;
I've never, literally, had
A home in Old Kentucky.
And yet I feel should wayward Chance
Direct my steps to roam there,
I'd meet you all and greet you all--
And find myself _at home_ there!

As has already been indicated, the good physician-poet is not by any
manner of means the only alien bard who has remembered Kentucky in his
work. No less a poet than the great Sir Walter Scott celebrated
Kentucky in _Marmion_--the State's first appearance in English poetry.
The passage may be found near the close of the ninth stanza in the
third canto. Lord Marmion and his followers have ridden "the livelong
day," and are now quartered at a well-known Scottish hostelry. They
have all eaten and drunk until they are on the borderland of dreams
when their leader, seeing their condition,

... called upon a squire:--
"Fitz-Eustace, know'st thou not some lay,
To speed the lingering night away?
We slumber by the fire."--

VIII

"So please you," thus the youth rejoined
"Our choicest minstrel's left behind."

And while Fitz realizes that he cannot, in any degree, equal the famous
singer to whom he has referred, he now further praises him, calls down
curses on the cause that kept him from following Marmion, and ventures

"To sing his favourite roundelay."

A mellow voice Fitz-Eustace had,
The air he chose was wild and sad;
Such have I heard, in Scottish land,
Rise from the busy harvest band,
When falls before the mountaineer,
On lowland plains, the ripened ear.
Now one shrill voice the notes prolong,
Now a wild chorus swells the song:
Oft have I listened, and stood still,
As it came soften'd up the hill,
And deem'd it the lament of men
Who languish'd for their native glen;
And thought how sad would be such sound,
On Susquehannah's swampy ground,
_Kentucky's wood-encumber'd brake_,
Or wild Ontario's boundless lake,
Where heart-sick exiles, in the strain,
Recall'd fair Scotland's hills again!

After Sir Walter, the next English poet to tell the world of Kentucky
and one of her sons, was George Gordon (Lord) Byron. His references
are found in the eighth canto and the sixty-first to the sixty-seventh
stanzas inclusive, of _Don Juan_. This poem was begun in 1819 and
published, several cantos at a time, until the final sixteenth
appeared in 1824. The sixty-first stanza will serve our purpose.

LXI

Of all men, saving Sylla, the man-slayer,
Who passes for in life and death most lucky,
Of the greatest names which in our faces stare,
_The General Boone, back-woodsman of Kentucky_,
Was happiest amongst mortals anywhere;
For killing nothing but a bear or buck, he
Enjoy'd the lonely, vigorous, harmless days
Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze.

In 1827 Alfred Tennyson, with his brother Charles, published a slender
sheaf of juvenile verses, entitled _Poems By Two Brothers_. _On
Sublimity_ contains eleven stanzas of ten lines each. The poet
disdains "vales in tenderest green," and asks for "the wild cascade,
the rugged scene," the sea, the mountains, dark cathedrals, storms,
"Niagara's flood of matchless might," and Mammoth Cave.

The hurricane fair earth to darkness changing,
_Kentucky's chambers of eternal gloom_,[1]
The swift-pac'd columns of the desert ranging
Th' uneven waste, the violent Simoom
The snow-clad peaks, stupendous Gungo-tree!
Whence springs the hallow'd Jumna's echoing tide,
Hear Cotopaxi's cloud-capt majesty,
Enormous Chimborazo's naked pride,
The dizzy Cape of winds that cleaves the sky,
Whence we look down into eternity,
The pillar'd cave of Morven's giant king
The Yanar, and the Geyser's boiling fountain,
The deep volcano's inward murmuring,
The shadowy Colossus of the mountain;
Antiparos, where sun-beams never enter;
Loud Stromboli, amid the quaking isles;
The terrible Maelstroom, around his centre
Wheeling his circuit of unnumber'd miles:
These, these are sights and sounds that freeze the blood,
Yet charm the awe-struck soul which doats on solitude.

Tennyson was the third and last English poet of the nineteenth century
to make mention of Kentucky in his works.

Much writing has been done by Kentuckians from the beginning until the
present time, but most of what is usually termed literature is the work
of the school of today. That much, however, of the early productions,
especially the anonymous and fugitive poems, have been forever lost, may
be gathered from a letter written to Edwin Bryant, editor of _The
Lexington Intelligencer_, by an Ohio correspondent, which appeared in
that paper in January, 1834, a part of which is as follows:

There were a vast number of rural and sentimental songs, sung by
the hunters and pioneers, that, in this our day, to the present
generation would be truly interesting. Would it not be wise for
you, Messrs. Editors, to publish a note in your valuable paper,
offering the "Poets' Corner," and save what you can of the
fragments of "Olden Times?"... I know that there were many
sentimental pieces--some written by a Mr. Bullock--many war songs;
one on St. Clair's defeat; and there was a wonderful flow of
poetical effusions on the first discovery of a settlement of
Kentucky. There was a wooing song of the hunter--one stanza I can
only repeat:

"I will plough and live, and you may knit and sowe,
And through the wild woods, I'll hunt the buffaloe!"

To many these things may appear as ... light as empty air, but
look to the future, and you will at once discover the inquisitive
mind will earnestly desire to look into such matters and things.

The pity is, this admonition passed unheeded by Bryant and his
contemporaries, and much that "the inquisitive mind" would revel in
to-day, was thus lost. The most famous, however, of the pioneer songs
that the above quoted writer probably had in mind, _The Hunters of
Kentucky_, the celebrated ballad of the Battle of New Orleans, has come
down to us, but it was written by the alien hand of Samuel Woodworth,
who achieved a double triumph over oblivion by also writing _The Old
Oaken Bucket_. And were other "wooing songs of the hunter" extant, we
would certainly discover that many of them were done by non-Kentuckians.
Even _Kentucky Belle_, ballad of Morgan and his men, was the work of
Constance Fenimore Woolson, the famous author of _Anne_.

In recent years the ballads of the Kentucky mountains have been
investigated by a group of scholars, and Dr. Hubert Gibson Shearin
will shortly publish a collection of them. It is impossible to discuss
them at this time; and as nearly all of them are offshoots of the old
English ballads and Scottish songs, done over by their Kentucky
descendants, the ever-recurring question: "Are they Kentucky
productions?" will not down.

THE KENTUCKY MAGAZINES

Kentucky has failed to produce and maintain a respectable literary
magazine for any considerable length of time. Many magazines have been
born in Kentucky with high hopes, and a few of them have braved the
storms for a number of years, but all of them have gone the way of all
the earth after a pathetic struggle for existence.

The reasons for this lie not far afield: the leading magazines and
periodicals of the east through the immensity of their circulation
secure that large patronage necessary to maintain a publication
conducted on a generous basis, ensuring variety and excellence.
Experience has long since demonstrated even to the bravest of the
inland publishers that the point of distribution is the controlling
factor in success. The means of transportation which have so
miraculously improved, have annihilated distance and along with it to
no small extent the Western and Southern periodical of literary
flavor. The opulent publications are enabled through their very
prosperity to command contributors not to be approached by a
periodical circumscribed in means and constituency. Again, the
Kentucky magazines have all along made the fatal mistake of truckling
to dead prejudices and sectionalism. The material and the moulders
have long been with us, but the wide popular support, which after all
is the first essential, has failed to materialise, and it may be
regretfully apprehended that it now lies as far away as ever.

The first magazine issued in Kentucky or the West was _The Medley, or
Monthly Miscellany, for the year 1803_, which was edited and published
by Daniel Bradford, son of old John Bradford, the editor of _The
Kentucky Gazette_. _The Medley_ lived through the year of 1803, but in
January, 1804, Editor Bradford announced that he was compelled, from
lack of appreciation, to abandon its publication. The twelve parts were
bound for those of the subscribers who cared to have them made into a
single volume, and probably not more than two copies are extant to-day.
_The Medley's_ literary merit was not impressive, and its death can only
be deplored because it happened to be the first Western magazine.

_The Almoner_, a religious periodical, the first issue of which was
dated from Lexington, April, 1814, and which died a twelvemonth later,
was published by Thomas T. Skillman, the pioneer printer. Its account
of the preacher, John Poage Campbell, and his many theological works,
is about all one finds of interest in it.

William Gibbes Hunt, a Harvard man, who later took a degree from
Transylvania University, established _The Western Review_ at
Lexington, in August, 1819, and this was the first literary magazine
in the West worthy the name. Hunt was a man of fine tastes, and he had
a proper conception of what a magazine should be. He worked hard for
two years, but in July, 1821,--the number for which month is notable
as having contained the first draft of General William O. Butler's
famous poem, _The Boatman's Horn_, which is there entitled _The Boat
Horn_,--Hunt rehearsed the pathetic tale of the lack of support and
appreciation for a Western magazine, and, without any expressed
regret, entitled it his valedictory. He had survived twice as long as
any of his predecessors, and he probably felt that he had done fairly
well, as he undoubtedly had. The four bound volumes of _The Western
Review_ may be read to-day with more than an historical interest. Hunt
returned to his home in New England; and the only other thing of his
that is preserved is _An Address on the Principles of Masonry_
(Lexington, 1821), and a very excellent oration it is, too.

There were brave men after Hunt, however. _The Literary Pamphleteer_ was
born and died at Paris, Kentucky, in 1823; and in the following year
Thomas T. Skillman established _The Western Luminary_ at Lexington. This
was a semi-religious journal, but its publication was shortly suspended.
_The Microscope_ seems to have been the first magazine published at
Louisville, it being founded in 1824, but its life was ephemeral. Under
a half a dozen different names, with many lapses between the miles, _The
Transylvanian_, which Professor Thomas Johnson Matthews, of Transylvania
University, established at Lexington in 1829, has survived until the
present time. It is now the literary magazine of Transylvania
University. Mr. James Lane Allen, Mr. Frank Waller Allen, and one or two
other well-known Kentucky writers saw their earliest essays and stories
first published in _The Transylvanian_. John Clark's _Lexington Literary
Journal_, a twice-a-week affair, was founded in 1833; and the
_Louisville Literary News-Letter_, edited by Edmund Flagg and issued by
George D. Prentice, lived in the Kentucky metropolis from December,
1838, to November, 1840.

Far and away the most famous literary periodical ever published in
Kentucky, was _The Western Messenger_, founded at Cincinnati in 1835,
and removed to Louisville in April, 1836. James Freeman Clarke
(1810-1888), the noted Boston Unitarian preacher and author, was editor,
publisher, and agent of _The Messenger_ while it was at Louisville; and
he solicited subscriptions throughout Kentucky. Ralph Waldo Emerson
first appeared as a poet in his friend Clarke's magazine. His _Goodby
Proud World_, _The Rhodora_, _The Humble Bee_, and several of his other
now noted poems, were printed for the first time in _The Messenger_.
Clarke also published papers from the hands of Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell
Holmes, William Ellery Channing, Margaret Fuller, and nearly all of the
writers now grouped as the New England school. He printed a poem of John
Keats, which had never been previously published, the manuscript of
which was furnished by George Keats, brother of the poet, who lived at
Louisville for many years. Clarke later wrote an interesting sketch of
George Keats for his magazine. During parts of the four years he
published _The Messenger_ at Louisville he had as assistant editors
Christopher P. Cranch and Samuel Osgood, now well-known names in
American letters. Clarke returned to Boston in 1840, and _The Messenger_
returned to Cincinnati, where it was suspended in April, 1841. "The
periodical was an exotic," wrote William Henry Venable, "a Boston flower
blooming in the Ohio Valley;" and this is the one-line history of it.
Its like was never seen before, never since, and will never be seen
again in the West.

Thirteen years after _The Western Messenger_ left Louisville, _The
Western Literary Magazine_, a monthly publication, was begun; and
three years later, or in 1856, _The Louisville Review_, another
monthly, was established. But the war clouds of civil strife were
gradually gathering, and the endless pen scratching of the Kentucky
magazinist was lost in the cannon's roar. Newspapers were the only
things Kentuckians had time to peruse.

Since the war Kentucky periodicals have been, almost without exception,
rather tame affairs. They have all been most mushroomish. A few of them
may be singled out, such as _The Southern Bivouac_, which was conducted
at Louisville for several years by General Basil W. Duke and Richard W.
Knott; _The Illustrated Kentuckian_, founded at Lexington, in 1892; _The
Southern Magazine_, of Louisville, published papers by Mr. Allen,
stories by Mr. John Fox, Jr., and several other now well-known writers;
and Charles J. O'Malley's _Midland Review_ ran for some time. These are
the comparatively recent Kentucky periodicals which have bloomed in a
day and wilted with the earliest winter. _The Register_, official organ
of the State Historical Society, is still being issued three times a
year. It is unique among Kentucky magazines in that it is the only one
that has had adequate financial support, which, however, comes to it in
the form of a State appropriation. For the last twenty-five years _The
Courier-Journal_, of Louisville, has devoted space in its Saturday
edition to reviews of new books; and in recent years _The Evening Post_,
also of Louisville, has maintained a similar department.

J. W. T.

Lexington, Kentucky
June 13, 1913

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The italics in which the three Kentucky lines are set, are my own.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The last several years have been devoted to the collecting and
classifying of Kentucky books and authors from Filson, in 1784, to Mr.
Allen, in 1912. While the author has done other things, this has been
his most serious business.

Of the more than a thousand Kentucky writers, one hundred and
ninety-six, or those who achieved considerable reputation in their day
and generation, or others to whom fame came late, are now discussed.
The author hopes to publish within the next two or three years a
_Dictionary of Kentucky Writers_, which will attempt to bring together
in brief biographical and critical notes all of Kentucky's literary
workers from the beginning until the present time. The crossroads poet
is a most elusive, most diffident figure, but I shall do my best to
bring him into the _Dictionary_ that is to be.

I have received assistance from many quarters. Colonel Reuben T.
Durrett, Dr. Henry A. Cottell, General Bennett H. Young, Colonel
Robert M. Kelly, Mrs. Evelyn Snead Barnett, Mrs. Elvira Miller
Slaughter, and Mr. George T. Settle, of Louisville, Kentucky, have
aided me in many directions. Mr. George McCalla Spears, of Dallas,
Texas, author of _Dear Old Kentucky_, and the owner of one of the best
collections of Kentucky books ever gotten together, I have to thank
for a catalogue of his library and a dozen informing letters. Judge
James H. Mulligan, Miss Anna Totten, Mrs. Annie Gratz Clay, Miss Jo
Peter, and Mr. James M. Roach, of Lexington, Kentucky, have loaned and
given me many rare Kentucky items; to Mr. William Kavanaugh Doty, of
Richmond, Kentucky, Mrs. Daniel Henry Holmes, of Covington, Kentucky,
Mrs. Lucien Beckner, of Winchester, Kentucky, Dr. Thomas E. Pickett,
of Maysville, Kentucky, State Librarian Frank K. Kavanaugh, of
Frankfort, Kentucky, Mr. Alexander Hill, and Miss Marian Prentice
Piatt, of Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Henry Cleveland Wood, of Harrodsburg,
Kentucky, Mr. Paul Weir, of Owensboro, Kentucky, Mr. Ingram Crockett,
of Henderson, Kentucky, Mrs. Mary Addams Bayne, of Shelbyville,
Kentucky, Miss Leigh Gordon Giltner, of Eminence, Kentucky, and Mrs.
Caroline S. Valentine, of New Castle, Kentucky, the majority of whom
are writers, I am doubly indebted for facts regarding their own work,
as well as for what I now more especially thank them--information
concerning other Kentucky writers.

Death found the two best friends, perhaps, this work had during the
course of its preparation, when it took Charles J. O'Malley, the
Kentucky poet and critic, and Jahu Dewitt Miller, the Philadelphia
lecturer and bookman. Both of these men had just gotten into the
spirit of the work when they died within a year of each other.
O'Malley wrote the most illuminating letters concerning Kentucky
authors it has been my good fortune to receive; Miller made the most
gratifying and surprising additions to my collection of Kentuckiana,
exceedingly scarce volumes and pamphlets which he alone seemed able to
unearth from the old bookshops of the country. The memories of them
both must be ever green with me and in this work.

I have to thank Mr. Allen for his very fine introduction. To have
one's name associated with his is reward sufficient for the years of
toil and sacrifice this work has demanded of its author.

CONTENTS

JOHN FILSON 1
THE AIR AND CLIMATE OF KENTUCKY 2
QUADRUPEDS 3
BOONE'S FIRST VIEW OF KENTUCKY 4

JOHN BRADFORD 5
NOTES ON KENTUCKY. SECTION I 6

MATTHEW LYON 8
REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE 9

GILBERT IMLAY 11
THE FLIGHT OF A FLORID LOVER 13

ADAM RANKIN 17
ON THE EXTENT OF THE GOSPEL OFFER 18
UPON MARRIAGE BY LICENSE 18

THOMAS JOHNSON 19
EXTEMPORE GRACE 21
DANVILLE 21
KENTUCKY 21
HUDSON, WIFE-MURDERER 22
PARSON RICE 22
THE POET'S EPITAPH 22

GEORGE BECK 23
FIFTEENTH ODE OF HORACE 24
ANACREON'S FIFTY-FIFTH ODE 25
ANACREON'S FIRST ODE 26

HUMPHREY MARSHALL 26
PRIMEVAL KENTUCKY 28

STEPHEN T. BADIN 30
EPICEDIUM 31

CHARLES CALDWELL 34
GENERAL GREENE'S EARLY LIFE 35

ALLAN B. MAGRUDER 37
CITIZEN GENET AND JEFFERSON 38

HENRY CLAY 39
REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH 42
ADDRESS TO LA FAYETTE 43

JOHN J. AUDUBON 45
INDIAN SUMMER ON THE OHIO 48

HORACE HOLLEY 52
MR. CLAY AND COL. MEADE 53

CONSTANTINE S. RAFINESQUE 56
GEOLOGICAL ANNALS 58

MANN BUTLER 59
PIONEER VISITORS 60

ZACHARY TAYLOR 62
A LETTER TO HENRY CLAY 63

DANIEL DRAKE 65
MAYSLICK, KENTUCKY, IN 1800 67

MARY A. HOLLEY 69
TEXAS WOMEN 70

JOHN J. CRITTENDEN 71
EULOGY UPON JUSTICE MCKINLEY 73

JOHN M. HARNEY 74
ECHO AND THE LOVER 76
THE WIPPOWIL 77
SYLPHS BATHING 78

GEORGE ROBERTSON 78
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 80
EARLY STRUGGLES 80
LITERARY FAME 81

SHADRACH PENN 82
THE COMING OF GEORGE D. PRENTICE 83

WILLIAM O. BUTLER 84
THE BOATMAN'S HORN 86

HEW AINSLIE 87
THE BOUROCKS O' BARGENY 89
THE HAUGHS O' AULD KENTUCK 89
THE INGLE SIDE 90
THE HINT O' HAIRST 91

JAMES G. BIRNEY 91
THE NO-GOVERNMENT DOCTRINES 93

THOMAS CORWIN 95
THE MEXICAN WAR 96

HENRY B. BASCOM 98
A CLERGYMAN'S VIEW OF NIAGARA 99

JAMES T. MOREHEAD 102
JOHN FINLEY 103

LEWIS COLLINS 104
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 105

JULIA A. TEVIS 107
THE MAY QUEEN 108

ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE 112
SANCTIFICATION 113

CAROLINE L. HENTZ 114
BESIDE THE LONG MOSS SPRING 115

JOHN P. DURBIN 117
IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON 118

FORTUNATUS COSBY, JR. 119
FIRESIDE FANCIES 120

THOMAS F. MARSHALL 123
TEMPERANCE: AN ADDRESS 124

JEFFERSON J. POLK 126
THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDS 127

GEORGE D. PRENTICE 129
THE CLOSING YEAR 131
ON REVISITING BROWN UNIVERSITY 133
PARAGRAPHS 135

ROBERT M. BIRD 135
NICK OF THE WOODS 137

JOHN A. MCCLUNG 139
THE WOMEN OF BRYANT'S STATION 140

JAMES O. PATTIE 142
THE SANTA FE COUNTRY 143

WILLIAM F. MARVIN 145
EPIGRAM 146
THE FIRST ROSES OF SPRING 146
SONG 147

ELISHA BARTLETT 147
JOHN BROWDIE OF "NICHOLAS NICKLEBY" 148

SAMUEL D. GROSS 150
KENTUCKY 151
THE DEATH OF HENRY CLAY 152

THOMAS H. CHIVERS 152
THE DEATH OF ALONZO 154
GEORGIA WATERS 156

JEFFERSON DAVIS 156
FROM THE FAREWELL SPEECH 158

WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER 160
THE MOTHERS OF THE WEST 162

THOMAS H. SHREVE 163
I HAVE NO WIFE 164

ORMSBY M. MITCHEL 166
ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF GOD 167

ALBERT T. BLEDSOE 169
SEVEN CRISES CAUSED THE CIVIL WAR 171

RICHARD H. MENEFEE 173
KENTUCKY: A TOAST 174

GEORGE W. CUTTER 176
THE SONG OF STEAM 177

MARY P. SHINDLER 179
THE FADED FLOWER 180

MARTIN J. SPALDING 181
A BISHOP'S ARRIVAL 182

JOHN W. AUDUBON 185
LOS ANGELES 186
TULARE VALLEY 186
CHRISTMAS IN 'FRISCO 187

ADRIEN E. ROUQUETTE 187
SOUVENIR DE KENTUCKY 189

EMILY V. MASON 191
THE DEATH OF LEE 192

EDMUND FLAGG 194
THE ANCIENT MOUNDS OF THE WEST 195

CATHERINE A. WARFIELD 197
CAMILLA BOUVERIE'S DIARY 198
A PLEDGE TO LEE 199

J. ROSS BROWNE 200
LAPDOGS IN GERMANY 201

ROBERT MORRIS 205
THE LEVEL AND THE SQUARE 206

AMELIA B. WELBY 207
THE RAINBOW 209
ON THE DEATH OF A SISTER POET 210

CHARLES W. WEBBER 211
TROUTING ON JESSUP'S RIVER 212

LEWIS J. FRAZEE 216
HAVRE 217

THEODORE O'HARA 218
THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD 220
THE OLD PIONEER 223
SECOND LOVE 225
A ROLLICKING RHYME 225
THE FAME OF WILLIAM T. BARRY 226

SARAH T. BOLTON 228
PADDLE YOUR OWN CANOE 229

JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE 231
HENRY CLAY 232

JAMES WEIR, SR. 234
SIMON KENTON 235

MARY E. W. BETTS 237
A KENTUCKIAN KNEELS TO NONE BUT GOD 238

REUBEN T. DURRETT 239
LA SALLE: DISCOVERER OF LOUISVILLE 241

RICHARD H. COLLINS 244
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 245

ANNIE C. KETCHUM 247
APRIL TWENTY-SIXTH 248

FRANCIS H. UNDERWOOD 250
ALOYSIUS AND MR. FENTON 252
AN AMAZING PROPHECY 254

STEPHEN C. FOSTER 255
MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME, GOOD-NIGHT 256

ZACHARIAH F. SMITH 258
EARLY KENTUCKY DOCTORS 259

JOHN A. BROADUS 261
OXFORD UNIVERSITY 263

MARY J. HOLMES 265
THE SCHOOLMASTER 266

ROSA V. JEFFREY 269
A GLOVE 270
A MEMORY 271

SALLIE R. FORD 272
OUR MINISTER MARRIES 273

JOHN E. HATCHER 276
NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPHS 277

WILLIAM C. WATTS 279
A WEDDING AND A DANCE 280

J. PROCTOR KNOTT 282
FROM THE DULUTH SPEECH 283

GEORGE G. VEST 285
JEFFERSON'S PASSPORTS TO IMMORTALITY 286
EULOGY OF THE DOG 286

WILLIAM P. JOHNSTON 288
BATTLE OF SHILOH--SUNDAY MORNING 289

WILL WALLACE HARNEY 291
THE STAB 292

J. STODDARD JOHNSTON 292
"CAPTAIN MOLL" 293

JULIA S. DINSMORE 295
LOVE AMONG THE ROSES 295

HENRY T. STANTON 297
THE MONEYLESS MAN 299
"A MENSÁ ET THORO" 300
A SPECIAL PLEA 301
SWEETHEART 301

SARAH M. PIATT 303
IN CLONMEL PARISH CHURCHYARD 304
A WORD WITH A SKYLARK 305
THE GIFT OF TEARS 306

BOYD WINCHESTER 307
LAKE GENEVA 308

THOMAS GREEN 310
THE CONSPIRATORS 312

FORCEYTHE WILLSON 313
THE OLD SERGEANT 314

W. C. P. BRECKINRIDGE 319
IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER'S SON 321

BASIL W. DUKE 323
MORGAN, THE MAN 324

HENRY WATTERSON 325
OLD LONDON TOWN 327

GILDEROY W. GRIFFIN 331
THE GYPSIES 332

JOHN L. SPALDING 334
AN IVORY PAPER-KNIFE 335

NATHANIEL S. SHALER 336
THE ORPHAN BRIGADE 337
TOM MARSHALL 339
LINCOLN IN KENTUCKY 341

WILLIAM L. VISSCHER 342
PROEM 343

BENNETT H. YOUNG 344
PREHISTORIC WEAPONS 345

JAMES H. MULLIGAN 348
IN KENTUCKY 350
OVER THE HILL TO HUSTONVILLE 351

NELLY M. MCAFFEE 353
FINALE 353

MARY F. CHILDS 356
DE NAMIN' OB DE TWINS 357

WILLIAM T. PRICE 359
THE OFFENBACH AND GILBERT OPERAS 361

GEORGE M. DAVIE 363
"FRATER, AVE ATQUE VALE" 363
HADRIAN, DYING, TO HIS SOUL 364

JOHN URI LLOYD 364
"LET'S HAVE THE MERCY TEXT" 366

KENTUCKY IN AMERICAN LETTERS

JOHN FILSON

John Filson, the first Kentucky historian, was born at East
Fallowfield, Pennsylvania, in 1747. He was educated at the academy of
the Rev. Samuel Finley, at Nottingham, Maryland. Finley was afterwards
president of Princeton University. John Filson looked askance at the
Revolutionary War, and came out to Kentucky about 1783. In Lexington
he conducted a school for a year, and spent his leisure hours in
collecting data for a history of Kentucky. He interviewed Daniel
Boone, Levi Todd, James Harrod, and many other Kentucky pioneers; and
the information they gave him was united with his own observations,
forming the material for his book. Filson did not remain in Kentucky
much over a year for, in 1784, he went to Wilmington, Delaware, and
persuaded James Adams, the town's chief printer, to issue his
manuscript as _The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of
Kentucke_; and then he continued his journey to Philadelphia, where
his map of the three original counties of Kentucky--Jefferson,
Fayette, and Lincoln--was printed and dedicated to General Washington
and the United States Congress. This Wilmington edition of Filson's
history is far and away the most famous history of Kentucky ever
published. Though it contained but 118 pages, one of the six extant
copies recently fetched the fabulous sum of $1,250--the highest price
ever paid for a Kentucky book. The little work was divided into two
parts, the first part being devoted to the history of the country, and
the second part was the first biography of Daniel Boone ever
published. Boone dictated this famous story of his life to the
Pennsylvania pedagogue, who put it into shape for publication, yet
several Western writers refer to it as "Boone's autobiography." Boone
is the author's central hero straight through the work, and he is
happier when discussing him than in relating the country's meager
history. Filson's _Kentucky_ was translated into French by M. Parraud,
and issued at Paris in 1785; and in the same year a German version was
published. Gilbert Imlay incorporated it into the several editions of
his _Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North
America_ (London, 1793). And several subsequent Western writers also
reproduced it in their works, seldom giving Filson the proper credit
for it. The last three or four years of his life John Filson spent in
Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana. He was one of the founders of
Cincinnati, which he named "Losantiville;" and a short time later, in
1788, he wandered into the Miami woods one day and was never seen
again. Col. Reuben T. Durrett, the Louisville historian, wrote his
biography, and established an historical organization, in 1884, which
he named the "Filson Club." Filson's fame is secure in Kentucky, and
Colonel Durrett and his work have made it so.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Life and Writings of John Filson_, by R. T.
Durrett (Louisville, Kentucky, 1884); _Kentuckians in History and
Literature_, by John Wilson Townsend (New York, 1907); _The First
Map of Kentucky_, by P. Lee Phillips (Washington, 1908).

THE AIR AND CLIMATE OF KENTUCKY

[From _The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky_
(Wilmington, Delaware, 1784)]

This country is more temperate and healthy than the other settled parts
of America. In summer it has not the sandy heats which Virginia and
Carolina experience, and receives a fine air from its rivers. In winter,
which at most lasts three months, commonly two, and is but seldom
severe, the people are safe in bad houses; and the beasts have a goodly
supply without fodder. The winter begins about Christmas, and ends about
the first of March, at farthest does not exceed the middle of that
month. Snow seldom falls deep or lies long. The west winds often bring
storms and the east winds clear the sky; but there is no steady rule of
weather in that respect, as in the northern states. The west winds are
sometimes cold and nitrous. The Ohio running in that direction, and
there being mountains on that quarter, the westerly winds, by sweeping
along their tops, in the cold regions of the air, and over a long tract
of frozen water, collect cold in their course, and convey it over the
Kentucky country; but the weather is not so intensely severe as these
winds bring with them in Pennsylvania. The air and seasons depend very
much on the winds as to heat and cold, dryness and moisture.

QUADRUPEDS

[From the same]

Among the native animals are the urus, bison, or zorax, described by
Cesar, which we call a buffalo, much resembling a large bull, of a
great size, with a large head, thick, short, crooked horns, and
broader in his forepart than behind. Upon his shoulder is a large lump
of flesh, covered with a thick boss of long wool and curly hair, of a
dark brown color. They do not rise from the ground as our cattle, but
spring up at once upon their feet; are of a broad make, and clumsy
appearance, with short legs, but run fast, and turn not aside for any
thing when chased, except a standing tree. They weigh from 500 to 1000
weight, are excellent meat, supplying the inhabitants in many parts
with beef, and their hides make good leather. I have heard a hunter
assert, he saw above 1000 buffaloes at the Blue Licks at once; so
numerous were they before the first settlers had wantonly sported away
their lives. There still remains a great number in the exterior parts
of the settlement. They feed upon cane and grass, as other cattle, and
are innocent, harmless creatures.

There are still to be found many deer, elks, and bears, within the
settlement, and many more on the borders of it. There are also
panthers, wild cats, and wolves.

The waters have plenty of beavers, otters, minks, and muskrats: nor
are the animals common to other parts wanting, such as foxes, rabbits,
squirrels, racoons, ground-hogs, pole-cats, and opossums. Most of the
species of the domestic quadrupeds have been introduced since the
settlement, such as horses, cows, sheep, and hogs, which are
prodigiously multiplied, suffered to run in the woods without a
keeper, and only brought home when wanted.

BOONE'S FIRST VIEW OF KENTUCKY

[From the same]

It was on the 1st of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my
domestic happiness for a time, and left my family and peaceable
habitation on the Yadkin river, in North Carolina, to wander through
the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of Kentucky, in
company with John Finley, John Stewart, Joseph Holden, James Monay,
and William Cool. We proceeded successfully; and after a long and
fatiguing journey, through a mountainous wilderness, in a westward
direction, on the seventh day of June following we found ourselves on
Red river, where John Finley had formerly been trading with the
Indians, and, from the top of an eminence, saw with pleasure the
beautiful level of Kentucky. Here let me observe, that for some time
we had experienced the most uncomfortable weather as a prelibation of
our future sufferings. At this place we encamped, and made a shelter
to defend us from the inclement season, and began to hunt and
reconnoiter the country. We found everywhere abundance of wild beasts
of all sorts, through this vast forest. The buffaloe were more
frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements, browsing on the
leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage on those extensive plains,
fearless, because ignorant, of the violence of man. Sometimes we saw
hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt springs were
amazing. In this forest, the habitation of beasts of every kind
natural to America, we practiced hunting with great success, until the
22d day of December following.

JOHN BRADFORD

John Bradford, Kentucky's pioneer journalist, was born near Warrenton,
Virginia, in 1749. He saw service in the Revolutionary War, and came
to Kentucky when thirty years of age. He fought against the Indians at
Chillicothe, and, in 1785, brought his family out from Virginia to
Kentucky, locating at Cane Run, near Lexington. Two years later he and
his brother, Fielding Bradford, founded _The Kentucke Gazette_, the
first issue of which appeared Saturday, August 18, 1787--the second
newspaper west of the Alleghanies. The following year John Bradford
published _The Kentucke Almanac_, the first pamphlet from a Western
press; and this almanac was issued every twelvemonth for many years.
Fielding Bradford withdrew from the _Gazette_ in May, 1788, and "Old
Jawn," as he was called, carried the entire burden until 1802, when
his son, Daniel Bradford, assumed control. In March, 1789, under
instructions from the Virginia legislature, Bradford discarded
"Kentucke" for "Kentucky," one of the many interesting facts connected
with the _Gazette_. John Bradford was the first state printer; and the
first book he published was the laws passed by the first Kentucky
legislature, which assembled at Lexington in 1792. The Bradfords
published many of the most important early Western books, and a
"Bradford" brings joy to the heart of any present-day collector of
Kentuckiana. The column in the _Gazette_ devoted to verse, headed
"Sacred to the Muses," preserved many early Western poems; but the
little anecdotes which seldom failed to be tucked beneath the verse,
were nearly always coarse and vulgar, giving one a rather excellent
index to the editor's morals or the morals of his readers. Bradford
appears to have taken a great fancy to the poems of Philip Freneau
(1752-1832), the first real American poet, for he "picked up" more
than twenty of them from the _Freeman's Journal_. The most complete
files of the _Kentucky Gazette_ are preserved in the Lexington Public
Library, though the vandals that have consulted them from time to time
have cut and inked out many valuable things. John Bradford was a
public-spirited citizen, being, at different times, chairman of the
town trustees, and of the board of trustees of Transylvania
University. He was a profound mathematician, astronomer, and
philosopher, his contemporaries tell us, and in proof thereof they
have handed down another of his sobriquets, "Old Wisdom." Though his
fame as the first Kentucky editor is fixed, as an author his
reputation rests upon _The General Instructor; or, the Office, Duty,
and Authority of Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, Coroners, and
Constables, in the State of Kentucky_ (Lexington, Ky., 1800), a legal
compilation; and upon his more famous work, _Notes on Kentucky_
(Xenia, Ohio, 1827). These sixty-two articles were originally printed
in the _Gazette_ between August 25, 1826, and January 9, 1829. Upon
this work John Bradford is ranked among the Kentucky historians. At
the time of his death, which occurred at Lexington, Kentucky, March
31, 1830, he was sheriff of Fayette county.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. No biography of Bradford has been written, but any
of the histories of Kentucky contain extended notices of his life
and work.

NOTES ON KENTUCKY. SECTION I

[From the _Kentucky Gazette_ (August 25, 1826)]

This country was well known to the Indian traders many years before
its settlement. They gave a description of it to Lewis Evans, who
published his first map of it as early as 1752.

In the year 1750,[2] Dr. Thomas Walker, Colby Chew, Ambrose Powell
and several others from the counties of Orange and Culpepper, in the
state of Virginia, set out on an excursion to the Western Waters; they
traveled down the Holstein river, and crossed over the Mountains into
Powell's valley, thence across the Cumberland mountain at the gap
where the road now crosses, proceeded on across what was formerly
known by the name of the Wilderness until they arrived at the
Hazlepath; here the company divided, Dr. Walker with a part continued
north until they came to the Kentucky river which they named Louisa or
Levisa river. After traveling down the excessive broken or hilly
margin some distance they became dissatisfied and returned and
continued up one of its branches to its head, and crossed over the
mountains to New River at the place called Walker's Meadows.

In the year 1754 James McBride with some others, passed down the Ohio
river in canoes, and landed at the mouth of the Kentucky river, where
they marked on a tree the initials of their names, and the date of the
year. These men passed through the country and were the first who gave
a particular account of its beauty and richness of soil to the
inhabitants of the British settlements in America.

No further notice seems to have been taken of Kentucky until the year
1767, when John Finlay with others (whilst trading with the Indians)
passed through a part of the rich lands of Kentucky. It was then
called by the Indians in their language, the Dark and Bloody Grounds.
Some difference took place between these traders and the Indians, and
Finlay deemed it prudent to return to his residence in North Carolina,
where he communicated his knowledge of the country to Col. Daniel
Boone and others. This seems to have been one of the most important
events in the history of Kentucky, as it was the exciting cause which
prompted Col. Boone shortly afterwards to make his first visit to the
Dark and Bloody Grounds.

FOOTNOTE:

[2] Marshall in his _History_, v. i, p. 7, says it was 1758. Mr. H.
Taylor thinks Dr. Walker informed him it was in 1752, but Col. Shelby
states implicitly that, in 1779 in company with Dr. Walker on Yellow
creek a mile or two from Cumberland mountain, the Doctor observed "upon
that tree," pointing to a beech across the road to the left hand,
"Ambrose Powell marked his name and the date of the year." I examined
the tree and found _A. Powell 1750_ cut in legible characters.

MATTHEW LYON

Matthew Lyon, "the Hampden of Congress," was born in County Wicklow,
Ireland, July 14, 1750. He emigrated to America when he was fifteen
years old, and settled in Woodbury, Connecticut, as an apprentice of
Jabez Bacon, the wealthiest merchant in all New England. Lyon left
Connecticut, in 1774, and removed to Vermont, where he became one of the
famous Green Mountain Boys of the Revolution. He was a member of the
Vermont legislature for four years; and in 1783 he founded the town of
Fair Haven, Vermont. Lyon became one of the great men of Vermont, a
disciple of Thomas Jefferson, "the pioneer Democrat of New England." In
1796 he was elected to Congress and he went to Philadelphia in May,
1797, to enter upon his duties. He at once became one of the powerful
men in that body. Lyon had published a newspaper at Fair Haven for
several years, besides issuing a number of books from his press, but
during the years of 1798 and 1799 he edited the now famous _Scourge of
Aristocracy_, a semi-monthly magazine. At the present day this is a rare
volume, and much to be desired. In 1801 Lyon cast Vermont's vote for
Thomas Jefferson against Aaron Burr for the presidency, and this vote is
said to have made certain Jefferson's election. Late in this year of
1801 Lyon left Vermont for Kentucky, and he later became the founder of
Eddyville, Lyon county, Kentucky. The county, however, was named in
honor of his son, Chittenden Lyon. In 1802 Matthew Lyon was a member of
the Kentucky legislature; and from 1803 to 1811 he was in the lower
House of Congress from his Kentucky district. His opposition to the War
of 1812 retired him to private life. At Eddyville he was engaged in
shipbuilding, in which he had great success, but after his defeat for
reëlection to Congress, in 1812, disasters came fast upon him, and he
was reduced from affluence to comparative poverty. At the age of
sixty-eight years, however, he recovered himself, paid all his debts,
and died in easy circumstances. In 1820 Lyon was appointed United States
Factor to the Cherokee Indians of Arkansas territory, and he set out for
his future home at Spadra Bluff, Arkansas. He was later elected as
Arkansas's second delegate to Congress, but he did not live to take his
seat, dying at Spadra Bluff, August 1, 1822. Eleven years later his
remains were returned to Kentucky, and re-interred at Eddyville, where a
proper monument marks the spot to-day. Matthew Lyon's reply to John
Randolph of Roanoke, in 1804, in regard to the old question of the Yazoo
frauds, is his only extant speech that is at all remembered at the
present time.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins
(Covington, Kentucky, 1882); _Matthew Lyon_, by J. F. McLaughlin
(New York, 1900).

REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE[3]

[From _Matthew Lyon_, by J. F. McLaughlin (New York, 1900)]

The Postmaster General [Gideon Granger] has not lost my esteem, nor do
I think his character can be injured by the braying of a jackal, or
the fulminations of a madman. But, sir, permit me to inquire from whom
these charges of bribery, of corruption, and of robbery, come? Is it
from one who has for forty years, in one shape or other, been
intrusted with the property and concerns of other people, and has
never wanted for confidence, one whose long and steady practice of
industry, integrity, and well doing, has obtained for him his standing
on this floor? Is it from one who sneered with contempt on the
importunity with which he has solicited to set a price on the
important vote he held in the last Presidential election? No, sir,
these charges have been fabricated in the disordered imagination of a
young man whose pride has been provoked by my refusing to sing encores
to all his political dogmas. I have had the impudence to differ from
him in some few points, and some few times to neglect his fiat. It is
long since I have observed that the very sight of my plebeian face has
had an unpleasant effect on the gentleman's nose, for out of respect
to this House and to the State he represents, I will yet occasionally
call him gentleman. I say, sir, these charges have been brought
against me by a person nursed in the bosom of opulence, inheriting the
life services of a numerous train of the human species, and extensive
fields, the original proprietors of which property, in all
probability, came no honester by it than the purchasers of the Georgia
lands did by what they claim. Let that gentleman apply the fable of
the thief and the receiver, in Dilworth's Spelling Book, so
ingeniously quoted by himself, in his own case, and give up the stolen
men in his possession. I say, sir, these charges have come from a
person whose fortune, leisure and genius have enabled him to obtain a
great share of the wisdom of the schools, but who in years,
experience, and the knowledge of the world and the ways of man, is
many, many years behind those he implicates--a person who, from his
rant in this House, seems to have got his head as full of British
contracts and British modes of corruption as ever Don Quixote's was
supposed to have been of chivalry, enchantments and knight errantry--a
person who seems to think no man can be honest and independent unless
he has inherited land and negroes, nor is he willing to allow a man to
vote in the people's elections unless he is a landholder.

I can tell that gentleman I am as far from offering or receiving a
bribe as he or any other member on this floor; it is a charge which no
man ever made against me before him, who from his insulated situation,
unconversant with the world, is perhaps as little acquainted with my
character as any member of this House, or almost any man in the
nation, and I do most cordially believe that, had my back and my mind
been supple enough to rise and fall with his motions, I should have
escaped his censure.

I, sir, have none of that pride which sets men above being merchants
and dealers; the calling of a merchant is, in my opinion, equally
dignified, and no more than equally dignified with that of a farmer,
or a manufacturer. I have a great part of my life been engaged in all
the stations of merchant, farmer and manufacturer, in which I have
honestly earned and lost a great deal of property, in the character of
a merchant. I act like other merchants, look out for customers with
whom I can make bargains advantageous to both parties; it is all the
same to me whether I contract with an individual or the public; I see
no constitutional impediment to a member of this House serving the
public for the same reward the public gives another. Whenever my
constituents or myself think I have contracts inconsistent with my
duties as a member of this House, I will retire from it.

I came to this House as a representative of a free, a brave, and a
generous people. I thank my Creator that He gave me the face of a man,
not that of an ape or a monkey, and that He gave me the heart of a man
also, a heart which will spare to its last drop in defence of the
dignity of the station my generous constituents have placed me in. I
shall trouble the House no farther at this time, than by observing
that I shall not be deterred by the threats of the member from
Virginia from giving the vote I think the interest and honor of the
nation require; and by saying if that member means to be understood
that I have offered contracts from the Postmaster-General, the
assertion or insinuation has no foundation in truth, and I challenge
him to bring forward his boasted proof.

FOOTNOTE:

[3] This reply was made in answer to one of Randolph's ranting Yazoo
philippics, several of which are among the bitterest speeches ever heard
in Congress. Lyon at this time (1804) was a member of Congress from
Kentucky. The Yazoo land grant frauds had aroused the public mind, and a
commission had endeavored to settle by compromise the claims of Georgia,
and those holding under the Georgia act of 1795, to the vast territory
in dispute. Randolph denounced the frauds committed, and opposed any
settlement of the controversy, while Lyon desired to see the country
settled, and the compromise of the commissioners carried out.

GILBERT IMLAY

Gilbert Imlay, the first Kentucky novelist, was born in New Jersey,
about 1755. He was captain of a company in the Revolution. The war over,
Imlay turned his face toward the West; and he reached the Falls of the
Ohio--Louisville--in 1784. In the little river town he worked under
George May as a "commissioner for laying out lands in the back
settlements." Imlay had not been a Kentuckian many months before he had
obtained patents for many thousand acres of land--all of which he
subsequently lost. It is not certainly known how long he remained in
Kentucky, but it was about eight years. He went to London in 1792 and,
in that year, the first edition of his _Topographical Description of the
Western Territory of North America_ was published. This work is made up
of a series of descriptive letters which the author wrote from Kentucky
to an English friend. The second edition of 1793, and the third edition
of 1797, reproduced John Filson's _Kentucke_ and Thomas Hutchins's
_History_, together with much new material. While a resident of Kentucky
Gilbert Imlay wrote the first Kentucky novel, entitled _The Emigrants,
or the History of an Expatriated Family, being a Delineation of English
Manners drawn from Real Characters. Written in America, by G. Imlay,
Esq._ (London, 1793, 3 vols.; Dublin, 1794, 1 vol.). The epistolary form
is adopted throughout, and the narrative relates the fortunes of "an
eminent merchant in the city of London," Mr. T----n, who loses his great
fortune and emigrates with his family to America. His daughter, the
beautiful Caroline, is the heroine of the story. Landing in
Philadelphia, they travel to Pittsburgh, and from there drift down the
Ohio river in a Kentucky flatboat, or "ark," to Louisville. Caroline's
lover, Capt Arl----ton, had preceded the family and gone on to
Lexington, but he soon returned to Louisville when he learned that his
sweetheart awaited his coming. "The emigrants" remained in Kentucky some
three months, or from June until August. Caroline's capture by the
Indians in August decided the family to forsake the "dark and bloody
ground," though she was safely rescued. They finally find their way to
London, and all ends well. _The Emigrants_, in the three-volume edition,
is exceedingly scarce, but the Dublin one-volume edition may be
occasionally procured in the rare book shops of London. In 1793 Gilbert
Imlay went to Paris, where he met the famous Mary Wollstonecraft, with
whom he was soon living, as they both held mutual affection equivalent
to marriage. In 1794 a daughter was born to them, Fanny Imlay, who
committed suicide at Swansea, October 10, 1816. In April, 1796, Imlay
and Mary agreed to go separate paths after much stormy weather together;
and a short time later she became the wife of William Godwin, the
English philosopher and novelist. In giving birth to the future wife of
the poet Shelley, she surrendered her own life. Mary Wollstonecraft's _A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman_ is the chief memorial of her
pathetic and eventful career. After having parted on that April morning
of 1796 with the woman he had so outrageously treated, Gilbert Imlay,
"the handsome scoundrel," is lost to history. When, where, or how he
died is unknown.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _London Monthly Review_ (August, 1793); _Kentuckians
in History and Literature_, by John Wilson Townsend (New York,
1907); _Dictionary of National Biography_; biographies of Shelley,
Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft.

THE FLIGHT OF A FLORID LOVER

[From _The Emigrants_ (Dublin, 1794)]

LETTER XLVI. CAPT. ARL--TON TO MR. IL--RAY.

Louisville, June.

It is impossible for me to see Caroline in the present state of my
mind, and therefore I hope you will not look upon it in the least
disrespectful, my friend, if I should happen to be absent when you
arrive; for to be candid with you, I shall make a journey purposely to
Lexington.

Your obliging favour from Pittsburg, which you meant should give me
spirits, has had quite a contrary effect.

By attempting to soothe my mind, I discover that secret poison,
flattery, ever contains, and which I consider the principal cause of
my present wretchedness.

The image you have given of Caroline makes her appear to me more
lovely than ever; and when you say that enchantment seems to spring up
where e'er she treads, I feel the full force of all her charms, and
conceive that I behold her in this season of fragrance and beauty,
decorating those gardens which you passed through on your return from
the fatal view upon the Allegany,

While the blushing rose, drooping hides its head,
As Caroline's sweets more odorous prove,
And op'ning lilies look faint, sick, and dead,--
For things inanimate, feel the force of love.

She is irresistible--and it is only by absence that I shall ever be
enabled to forget my misfortunes, and therefore, my dear friend, I
must request that in your future letters, when you mention that divine
woman, you will not appreciate that beauty which has ten thousand
charms to fascinate and fetter the soul.

She has not only all the symmetry of form, the softness of love, and
the enchantment of a goddess; but she can assume an animation and that
surprising activity of motion, that while you are suspended in the
transports of astonishment, you are lost in admiration at the
gracefulness with which she moves--I have seen her bound over a rock,
and pluck a wild honey-suckle, that grew upon the side of a precipice,
and while I stood gazing at her in amazement, she has brought it as a
trophy of her exertions.

Believe, my friend, that if ever nature formed one woman to excel
another in personal charms, it must be Caroline.

* * * * *

I leave this enclosed in a packet for General W----. I am this moment
informed there are boats making round Diamond Island. Who knows but one
of them contains the lovely Caroline? Ah! my friend, I feel every
emotion of love and shame so powerfully, that I must instantly fly to
avoid exposing myself--curse that mandate which banished me from the
lovely tyrant of my heart--curse the vanity which exposed my
weakness;--for damnable is that fate which compels a man to avoid the
object of all others, which to him is the most interesting--I must this
instant be off. O Caroline!--Caroline! while my soul deadens at the
thought, I abandon the spot which will be converted into elysium the
moment you arrive. Forgive me, my friend, this effusion of nature--this
weakness, for it prepares us for those delicious raptures, that flow
from the source of sympathy, and while it softens us to that tender
texture, which is congenial to feminine charms, it invigorates our
actions, and fosters every generous and noble sentiment.

The streamers of your vessels, for it must be you, are playing in the
wind, as if enraptured with the treasure over which they impend, seem
eradiated with the charms of Caroline; while the gentle Ohio, as if
conscious of its charge, proudly swells, and appears to vie with the
more elevated earth, in order to secure to its divinity, upon which to
tread at her disembarkation, the flowery carpet of its banks.

Adieu. I am off. J. A.

AN EXASPERATED MATCHMAKER

LETTER XLVII. MR. IL--RAY TO CAPT. ARL--TON.

Louisville, June.

My dear James,

From the time we left Pittsburg until our arrival here, which was ten
days after our embarkation, we were all appreciating the pleasure we
should derive from finding you at this place.

I had expatiated largely upon the satisfaction we should experience
from the information you would give us of the country; and no sooner
were we in sight of the town that we hung out a flag of invitation;
not doubting that you would observe it, and immediately come off to us
in a barge; but what was the surprise of the whole part, and my
mortification, when we learned upon landing, you had left the place
not more than half an hour.

The letter you left enclosed for me in General W----'s packet, to be
sure, informed me of the cause of your absence; but it by no means
justified the action. And I demand as a proof of your respect for your
old friends, that you instantly return.

Remember, James, this is the command of a friend, who is anxious to
restore you to a state of reason, which it appears you have not
possessed for some time past.

Caroline was in tolerable spirits until within two days of our
arrival, when she suddenly appeared to be pensive and in a state of
extreme trepidation; and since we arrived she has been confined by
indisposition.

If you have a delicate and tender regard for this charming girl, you
will fly immediately to enquire after her health. But to put it out of
your power to frame a shadow for an excuse, I inform you that it is my
intention first to visit the Illinois, and to view this country on my
return.

I waited during yesterday for an opportunity to send this, and as I
could not meet with one, I send a person I have hired for that
purpose, as my men are unacquainted with the country.

Believe me to be your sincere, but unhappy friend,

G. Il--ray.

THE BASHFUL LOVER'S RETURN

LETTER XLVIII. CAPT. ARL--TON TO MR. IL--RAY.

Lexington, June.

Your express has this moment reached me: and to convince you, my dear
Il--ray, that no man can be more alive to every sentiment of love and
friendship, I shall not defer my return to Louisville a single hour; and
I merely dispatch this by the return of your messenger, to let you know
I shall be with you tomorrow in the evening; and that in my present
distracted state of mind, I think it most advisable to make my _entre_
under the cover of the dark, to prevent my being perceived, as I wish to
devote the whole evening in sequestered converse with you, my friend.

Caroline is ill! Ah! Il--ray I am wretched in the extreme. I am burnt
up with a scorching fever--I am wrecked in the elements of every
painful passion, and my every effort to reason is baffled by my
reflections upon past occurrences.

But I am your indissoluble friend,

J. Arl--ton.

ADAM RANKIN

Rev. Adam Rankin, author of the first book ever printed in Kentucky,
was born in Pennsylvania, March 24, 1755. He was graduated from
Liberty Hall, now Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia,
when about twenty-five years of age; and two years later he was
licensed to preach by the Virginia Presbytery. Rev. Rankin came to
Lexington, Kentucky, in 1784, to accept the pastorate of the
Presbyterian church. He also conducted a school for some time, but his
one thought was Psalmody, which became "his monomania." He created a
schism in his church by insisting that Dr. Watts's imitation of the
Psalms of David be expelled from the church worship, and that the
Psalms in their most literal dress be chanted. His brethren
disapproved of his views, but they could not discourage him or cause
him to discard his contention. Everywhere he went he preached and
wrote upon his favorite subject. Rev. Rankin's Kentucky brethren made
life unbearable for him, and he went to London, where he remained for
two years. When he did return to Kentucky it was to face accusation
after accusation, and church trial after church trial, until he was
finally suspended. Rev. Rankin was a strange, eccentric man, a dreamer
of dreams, a Kentucky Luther, and, perhaps, a bit crazed with the
bitter opposition his views received. His latest, boldest dream was
that Jerusalem was about to be rebuilt and that he must hurry there in
order to assist in the rebuilding. He bade his Lexington flock
farewell, and started to the Holy City, but, on November 25, 1827,
death overtook him at Philadelphia. Rev. Rankin was the author of
several theological works, but his _A Process in the Transylvania
Presbytery, &c._ (Maxwell and Gooch, At the Sign of the Buffalo, Main
Street, Lexington, 1793), is the first book ever printed in Kentucky,
if the _Kentucky Acts_ which John Bradford published in the same year
be excepted. Many days were required to print this little book of
Rankin upon the hand-press of the publishers, though it contained but
ninety-six pages, divided into five parts. Although it is not great
literature, it is the first book that can, in any wise, come under
that term published in this State. It is surely of more literary
importance than Bradford's _Acts_. Rev. Rankin was, as were nearly all
of the early Kentucky theologians, a prolific pamphleteer. His
_Dialogues_ (Lexington, 1810), is really his most important
publication, but it has been greatly overlooked in the recent rush
among Kentucky historical writers to list _A Process_ as the first
book published in Kentucky. His eccentric career as a man and preacher
is, after all, of more interest than his work as an author.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky_, by
R. H. Davidson (New York, 1847); _The Centenary of Kentucky_, by
R. T. Durrett (Louisville, Kentucky, 1892).

ON THE EXTENT OF THE GOSPEL OFFER

[From _A Process in the Transylvania Presbytery_ (Lexington, Ky.,
1793)]

We believe, that as it respects the outward means, the ambassadors are
authorised to publish, proclaim, and declare the counsel of God, as it
stands connected with our salvation; and that all, who hear the sound,
have an equal and indefinite warrant, not only to embrace the means as
offered to them indiscriminately, by which comes faith, but have a
right to believe, that Christ, with all his benefits, is freely
offered to them, as sinners, without ever enquiring, into the secret
purposes of God, whether they are elect, or non-elect.

UPON MARRIAGE BY LICENSE

[From the same]

Seeing, under our government, it is not purchasing a liberty by
pecuniary rewards, further, than compensating a prothonotary, for
taking bond and security, that guardians are agreed, and keeping a
just register, for the credit and safety of the rising family. And as
the contract is partly civil in its nature, and civil government is
bound to defend the civil rights--we believe it perfectly consonant to
the analogy of faith, which might be evinced from the fourth chapter
of Ruth. But as it is partly social, and the parties contracting come
under the mutual obligations to fulfil their relative duties, it ought
to be consummated before witnesses. And as it is partly religious,
every family appertaining to the Church of Christ, commences a
nursery, or infant society, to train up their family in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. We believe it right, that whenever a
church in full order exists, that the pastor, or church officer should
consecrate them, to the business assigned them as a Church of Christ,
taking their obligations for the due performance of their duty.

THOMAS JOHNSON, Jr.

Thomas Johnson, Junior, the first Kentucky poet, who, for many years,
enjoyed the sobriquet of the "Drunken Poet of Danville," was born in
Virginia about 1760, and he came to Kentucky when twenty-five years of
age. He settled at Danville, then a village, and immediately entered
into the role of poet, punster, and ne'er-do-weel. Documentary
evidence is extant to prove that Danville was a gay little town when
the young Virginian arrived there about 1785; and he was early drawn
into excesses, or led others into them. Johnson was a rather prolific
maker of coarse satirical rhymes, which he finally assembled into a
small pamphlet, and published them as _The Kentucky Miscellany_
(Lexington, 1796). This was the first book of poems, if they may be so
termed, printed in Kentucky. The original price of this pamphlet was
nine pence the copy, but it is impossible to procure it today for any
price, and there is not an extant copy of this first edition. _The
Kentucky Miscellany_ went into a second edition in 1815, and a third
edition was published a few years later, but no copies of either
edition are extant. The fourth and final edition appeared from the
_Advertiser_ office at Lexington, in 1821, and a dog-eared,
much-mutilated copy of this is in the collection of the Filson Club in
Louisville--perhaps the only copy in the world. _The Miscellany_
contained but thirty-six small pages, about the size of the medical
almanacs of to-day. Many of the little verses are very vulgar and
actually obscene, perhaps due to the fact that Johnson could never
quite bury John Barleycorn alive. The most famous of them is the
_Extempore Grace_, which the bard delivered one day in the tavern of
old Erasmus Gill in Danville. In his cups he stumbled into the tavern
dining-room, where he found the meal over, and the guests gone,
nothing being left but the crumbs. He glanced at the tables, then at
Gill, and offered _Extempore Grace_. His lines on Danville, on
Kentucky, and on several other subjects reveal the satirist; and the
verses to Polly, his sweetheart, and to his favorite physician the
better elements in his nature. That these rather vulgar verses of
Johnson did not escape the censorship of Western advocates of the pure
food law in literature, is made certain by a letter from an Ohio
critic which appeared in the _Lexington Intelligencer_ for January 28,
1834. After having made a strong plea for the preservation of early
Western verse, the writer added: "I do not mean to embrace the low
doggerel of _Tom Johnson_; this was published some years ago, and I
never felt _decency_ more outraged than when it was handed me to read
by _mine landlady_! My stars! Save us from the _blackguardism_, for
the world is sufficiently demoralized." Had this early critic of Tom's
verses presented a bundle of them to some library, how many Western
writers would rise up and call him blessed! Johnson died and was
buried at Danville, but the date of his death or the exact place of
his burial is unknown. He had passed and was almost forgotten by 1830.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky_, by
R. H. Davidson (New York, 1847); _History of Kentucky_, by R. H.
Collins (Covington, Kentucky, 1882); _Centre College Cento_
(Danville, Kentucky, January, 1907); _Kentuckians in History and
Literature_, by J. W. Townsend (New York, 1907).

EXTEMPORE GRACE

[From _The Kentucky Miscellany_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1821)]

O! Thou who blest the loaves and fishes
Look down upon these empty dishes;
And that same power that did them fill,
Bless each of us, but d---- old Gill!

DANVILLE

[From the same]

Accursed Danville, vile, detested spot,
Where knaves inhabit, and where fools resort--
Thy roguish cunning, and thy deep design,
Would shame a Bluebeard or an Algerine.
O, may thy fatal day be ever curst,
When by blind error led, I entered first.

KENTUCKY

[From the same]

I hate Kentucky, curse the place,
And all her vile and miscreant race!
Who make religion's sacred tie
A mask thro' which they cheat and lie.
Proteus could not change his shape,
Nor Jupiter commit a rape
With half the ease those villains can
Send prayers to God and cheat their man!
I hate all Judges here of late,
And every Lawyer in the State.
Each quack that is called Physician,
And all blockheads in Commission--
Worse than the Baptist roaring rant,
I hate the Presbyterian cant--
Their Parsons, Elders, nay, the whole,
And wish them gone with all my soul.

HUDSON, WIFE MURDERER

[From the same]

Strange things of Orpheus poets tell,
How for a wife he went to Hell;
Hudson, a wiser man no doubt,
Would go to Hell to be without!

PARSON RICE

[From the same]

Ye fools! I told you once or twice,
You'd hear no more from canting R----e;
He cannot settle his affairs,
Nor pay attention unto prayers,
Unless you pay up your arrears.
Oh, how in pulpit he would storm,
And fill all Hell with dire alarm!
Vengeance pronounced against each vice,
And, more than all, curs'd avarice;
Preach'd money was the root of ill;
Consigned each rich man unto Hell;
But since he finds you will not pay,
Both rich and poor may go that way.
'Tis no more than I expected--
The meeting-house is now neglected:
All trades are subject to this chance,
No longer pipe, no longer dance.

THE POET'S EPITAPH

[From the same]

Underneath this marble tomb,
In endless shades lies drunken Tom;
Here safely moored, dead as a log,
Who got his death by drinking grog.
By whiskey grog he lost his breath--
Who would not die so sweet a death?

GEORGE BECK

George Beck, classicist, born in England in 1749, became instructor of
mathematics at Woolwich Academy, near London, at the age of
twenty-seven years; but he was later dismissed. Beck married an
English woman of culture and emigrated to the United States in 1795,
reaching these shores in time to serve "Mad Anthony" Wayne as a scout
in his Indian campaign. The wanderlust was upon George Beck, and he
became one of the first of that little band of nomadic painters that
came early to the Blue Grass country, and having once come remained.
He arrived at Lexington in 1800; and it was not long before he began
to send short original poems and spirited translations of Anacreon,
Homer, Horace, and Virgil to old John Bradford's _Gazette_. At about
this time, too, Beck was doing many portraits and a group of
landscapes in oils of the Kentucky river country, a few of which have
come down to posterity. Eighteen hundred and six seems to have been
Beck's best year in Kentucky from the literary viewpoint, as the
_Gazette_ is full of his verses and translations. He was widely known
as the "Lexington Horace." Besides painting and poetry, George Beck
was a rather learned astronomer, as his _Observations on the Comet_ of
1811 prove. With his wife he conducted an "Academy for Young Ladies"
for several years. His last years were much embittered by the lack of
appreciation upon the part of the Western public. The Kentucky of 1800
was not a whirlpool of art or literature by any means, and this
cultured man languished and finally died among a people who cared
very little for his fine learning or his manners. George Beck, poet,
translator, mathematician, astronomer, artist, died in Lexington,
Kentucky, December 14, 1812. His wife survived him until the cholera
year of 1833, which swept away nearly two thousand citizens of
Lexington and the Blue Grass.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Kentucky Gazette_ (Lexington, December 22, 1812);
Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New York, 1887, v.
i).

FIFTEENTH ODE OF HORACE

A New Translation of the Fifteenth Ode of Horace, or Prophecy of
Nerceus, from which (according to Count Algorotti and Dr. Johnson)
Gray took his beautiful Ode, _The Bard_.

[From _The Kentucky Gazette_ (October 27, 1806)]

What time the fair perfidious shepherd bore
The beauteous Helen back to Ilion's shore,
To sleep the howling waves were won
By Nerceus, Ocean's hoary son,
While round the liquid realms he sung,
From guilty love, what dire disasters sprung.

Thee, tainted Youth, what omens dire attend!
Thy neck and Ilion's soon to Greece shall bend.
To man and horse what sweat and blood,
What carnage float down Xanthus' flood!
What wrath on Troy shall Greece infuriate turn!
What glittering domes, and spires, and temples burn!

In vain you boast the Queen of beauty's smiles,
Her charms, her floating curls, her amourous wiles,
These, these alas! will nought avail
While Cretan arrows round you sail!
And, tho' the fates awhile such guilt may spare,
Vile dust at length shall smear that golden hair!

Trace back, vain Youth! sad Ilion's fate of old!
Ulysses' sons and Nestor's yet behold,
Teucer's and Diomede's more dread
Horrific war shall round you shed;
Then shall ye trembling fly like timid deer
When hungry wolves are howling in their rear.

By promise Vain of Universal Sway
Lur'd you from Greece the beauteous Queen away?
In less than ten revolving years
Achilles' dreadful fleet appears!
His bloody trains of Myrmidonians dire
Shall wrap proud Ilion's domes in Grecian fire!

ANACREON'S FIFTY-FIFTH ODE

[From _The Kentucky Gazette_ (November 3, 1806)]

What deathless Artist's mimic hand
Shall paint me here the Ocean bland,
Shall give the waves such kindling glows
As when immortal Venus rose?
Who, in phrenzy's flight of mind
Such touch and tinctures bright may find
To match her form and golden hair
And naked paint the heavenly fair?
While every amorous rival billow
Strives her buoyant breast to pillow?
'Tis done! behold the wavelets green
Softly press the Paphian Queen,
Around her heavenly bosom play,
Kiss its warm blush and melt away.
Her graceful neck of pearl behold,
Her wavy curls of floating gold:
But none but lips divine may tell
What Graces on that bosom dwell!
Such bloom a bed of lilies shows
Illumin'd by the crimson'd rose.
Rounding off with grace divine
Like hills of snow her shoulders shine.
While streaming thro' the waves she swims
The silvery maze half veils her limbs,
Else where's the eye that durst behold
Such beauty stream'd on heavenly mold?
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 Victimæ
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 Slyvæcola 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 Æstivis portenderat ista Cometes
Funera; Terra quatit repetitis motibus; ægre
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 lævam, desiderioque dalentis
Non pudor aut modus est. Lacrymas at fundere inanes
Quid juvat? Heu lacrymis nil Fata moventur acerba!
Ergo piæ 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.
"Prælium, et alta locum cyparissus contegat umbra.
"Tristis Hymen pretiosa urna cor nobile servet;
"Marmoreo reliquos cineres sincera sepulcro
"Condat Amicities; præsens venturaque laudet
"Ætas 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.
The noblest act the patriot's fame can tell,
Is, that he bravely for his country fell.

Thus sung the missionary bard, and paid
This mournful tribute to the mighty dead.

DR. CHARLES CALDWELL

Dr. Charles Caldwell, versatile and voluminous writer of prose, was
born at Caswell, North Carolina, May 14, 1772. He entered the medical
school of the University of Pennsylvania, in 1792; and he won the
city's gratitude in the following year by his medical services during
the yellow fever epidemic. In 1810 Dr. Caldwell became professor of
natural history in the University of Pennsylvania; and four years
later he succeeded Nicholas Biddle (1786-1844) as editor of _The
Port-Folio_, a Philadelphia magazine of high character. In 1819 Dr.
Caldwell came to Lexington, Kentucky, to accept the chair of materia
medica in Transylvania University. Some months later he was sent to
Europe to purchase books and apparatus for his department. He returned
to Transylvania and continued there until 1837, when he removed to
Louisville and established a medical institute. Some years later he
and the trustees disagreed and he left. After leaving the institute,
Dr. Caldwell continued to reside at Louisville, in which city he died,
July 9, 1853. Dr. Caldwell was the first distinguished American
practitioner of phrenology, if he did not actually discover this
alleged science. From 1794 until his death, Dr. Caldwell was an
indefatigable literary worker. He was the author of more than two
hundred pamphlets, essays, and books. He translated Blumenbach's
_Elements of Physiology_ (1795); _Bachtiar Nameh_ (1813), a Persian
tale which he translated from the Arabic; edited Cullen's _Practice of
Physic_ (1816); _Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of the Hon._
[General] _Greene_ (Philadelphia, 1819); _Elements of Phrenology_
(1824); _A Discourse on the Genius and Character of the Rev. Horace
Holley, LL.D., late President of Transylvania University_ (Boston,
1828); and _Thoughts and Experiments on Mesmerism_ (1842).

BIBLIOGRAPHY. His _Autobiography_ (Philadelphia, 1855), published
posthumously, has been regarded by many as an unfortunate work, as
in it he made some rather severe pictures of his contemporaries.
That the work contains much excellent writing, and is often very
happy in the descriptions of the country through which the author
passed, no one has arisen to gainsay; _Autobiography of Samuel D.
Gross, M. D._ (Philadelphia, 1887, v. ii).

GENERAL GREENE'S EARLY LIFE

[From _Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of the Hon. Nathaniel Greene_
(Philadelphia, 1819)]

Nathaniel Greene, although descended from ancestors of elevated
standing, was not indebted to the condition of his family for any
part of the real lustre and reputation he possessed. As truly as is
the case with any individual, he was the founder of his own fortune,
and the author of his own fame. He was the second son of Nathaniel
Greene, an anchor-smith, of considerable note, who is believed to have
had the earliest establishment of the kind erected in America, and, by
persevering industry in the line of his profession, an extensive and
lucrative concern in iron-works, and some success in commercial
transactions, had acquired a sufficiency to render him comfortable, if
not wealthy.

He was born in the year 1741, in the town of Warwick, and county of
Kent, in the province of Rhode Island. As far as is known, his childhood
passed without any peculiar or unequivocal indications of future
greatness. But this is a point of little moment. The size of the oak it
is destined to produce, can rarely be foretold from an examination of
the acorn. Nor is it often that any well defined marks of genius in the
child afford a premonition of the eminence of the man.

Several of his contemporaries, however, who are still living, have a
perfect recollection that young Greene had neither the appearance nor
manners of a common boy; nor was he so considered by his elder, and
more discerning acquaintance.

* * * * *

Being intended by his father for the business which he had himself
pursued, young Greene received at school nothing but the elements of a
common English education. But, to himself, an acquisition so humble
and limited, was unsatisfactory and mortifying. Even now, his aim was
lofty; and he had a noble ambition, not only to embark in high
pursuits, but to qualify himself for a manly and honourable
acquittance in them. Seeming, at this early period of life, to realize
the important truth that, knowledge is power, a desire to obtain it
became, in a short time, his ruling passion.

He accordingly procured, in part by his own economy, the necessary
books, and, at intervals of leisure, acquired, chiefly without the aid
of an instructor, a competent acquaintance with the Latin tongue.

This attainment, respectable in itself, was only preliminary to higher
efforts. With such funds as he was able to raise, he purchased a
small, but well selected library, and spent his evenings, and all the
time he could redeem from business, in regular study. He read with a
view to general improvement; but geography, travels, and military
history--the latter, more especially--constituted his delight. Having,
also, a predilection for mathematics and mechanical philosophy, and
pursuing, in most cases, the bent of his inclination, as far as
prudence and opportunity would admit, his knowledge, in the more
practical departments of these sciences, became highly respectable.

ALLAN B. MAGRUDER

Allan Bowie Magruder, poet and historian, was born in Kentucky, about
1775. He received an academic education, studied law, and was admitted
to the Lexington bar in 1797. He contributed very fair verse to the
_Kentucky Gazette_ in 1802 and 1803, which attracted considerable
comment in the West. That his fame as a poet was wide-spread, is
indicated by a letter from an Ohio writer published in the _Lexington
Intelligencer_, January 28, 1834, in which Magruder's verse is highly
praised and further information concerning his career is sought. After
stabbing poor Tom Johnson's little pamphlet of rhymes to the heart,
Magruder is placed upon his pedestal as the first real Kentucky poet;
and that his work was superior to either Johnson's or George Beck's is
obvious, continues the caustic correspondent. The truth is, of course,
that the verses of neither of the three men merit mention for anything
save their priority; and the young Lexington lawyer's muse was not as
productive as Tom's or Beck's, no more than three or four of his poems
having come down to us. His first prose work was entitled _Reflections
on the late Cession of Louisiana to the United States_ (Lexington,
1803). This little volume of 150 pages was issued by Daniel Bradford,
for whose periodical, _The Medley_, Magruder wrote _The Character of
Thomas Jefferson_ (June; July, 1803). This essay attracted the attention
of the President, and he appointed Magruder commissioner of lands in
Louisiana, to which territory he shortly afterwards removed. He was
later a member of the State legislature; and from November 18, 1812, to
March 3, 1813, Magruder was United States Senator from his adopted
State. The next few years he devoted to collecting materials for a
history of the North American Indians; and he also made notes for many
years for a history of Kentucky, which he finally abandoned, and which
he turned over to his old friend, John Bradford, who made use of them in
his _Notes on Kentucky_. Allan B. Magruder died at Opelousas, Louisiana,
April 16, 1822, when but forty-seven years of age. He was a man of
culture and of high promise, but once in the politics of the country his
early literary triumphs were not repeated, and he appears to have never
done any writing worth while after his removal from Kentucky.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Lexington Intelligencer_ (Lexington, Kentucky,
January 28, 1834); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_
(New York, 1888, v. iv).

CITIZEN GENET AND JEFFERSON

[From _The Medley_ (Lexington, Ky., July, 1803)]

When Citizen Genet, the ex-minister of the Robesperian fanaticism,
appeared in America, he attempted to impose his new philosophy of
light and liberty upon the government. He had nothing to boast of, on
the score of superior diplomatic skill. His communications to the
secretary of state, were evidently of the tampering kind. They were
impressed with all the marks of that enthusiastic insanity, which
regulated the councils of the faction; and which, were calculated to
mistake their object, by disgusting their intended victims. The mind
of Mr. Jefferson, discovered itself, in an early period of his
correspondence with the French minister. The communications of Genet
were decorated with all the flowers of eloquence, without the force
and conviction of rhetorical energy. Accustomed to diplomatic
calculation, and intimately combining cause with effect, Mr. Jefferson
apprehended the subject, with strength and precision; considered
it--developed it--viewed it on all sides--listened to every appeal,
and attended to every charge--and in every communication, burst forth
with a strength of refutation, that at once detected and embarrassed,
the disappointed minister of a wily and fanatic faction.

It is, in most instances, useless to oppose enthusiasm with the
deliberate coolness of reason and argument. They are the antipodes of
each other; and of that imperious nature, which mutually solicit
triumph and disdain reconciliation. The tyranny of the Robesperian
principles, were calculated to inveigle within the vortex of European
politics, the American government and people. The coolness and
sagacity of the secretary of state, composed their defence and
protection. The appeal was mutually made to the government; and it is
a fortunate circumstance, that there existed this tribunal to
approbate the measures of the secretary, and to silence forever, the
declamatory oracle of an insidious faction. Checked and defeated on
all sides, his doctrines stripped of their visionary principles, and
himself betrayed into the labyrinth of diplomatic mystery, their
ex-divinity, shrank into the silence of contempt; declaring with his
last breath, that Mr. Jefferson was the only man in America, whose
talents he highly respected.

HENRY CLAY

Henry Clay, the most famous Kentuckian ever born, first saw the light
in the "Slashes," Hanover county, Virginia, April 12, 1777. When
twenty years of age, he settled in Lexington, Kentucky, as a lawyer;
and Lexington was his home henceforth. In 1803 Henry Clay was elected
to the State legislature; and before he was thirty years old he was
filling an unexpired term in the United States Senate. In 1811 he was
sent to the National House of Representatives from the old Lexington
district. He was immediately chosen Speaker of that body, a position
to which he was subsequently elected five times. This was the period
of his greatest speeches. His utterances upon American rights did much
to bring about the War of 1812. In 1814 Henry Clay went to Europe as a
peace commissioner, and the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24,
1814. He had resigned the Speakership in order to go to Ghent, but on
his return in 1815, he found himself reëlected; and he presided as
Speaker until 1820, declining two diplomatic posts and two cabinet
offices in order to continue in the chair. In 1820 Henry Clay
advocated the Missouri Compromise, and a short time afterwards he
retired from public life to devote his attention to his private
affairs. He was, however, in 1823, again elected to the lower House of
Congress, and was again chosen Speaker, serving as such until 1825. In
1824 he announced himself as a candidate for president, but he was
defeated by John Quincy Adams, who made him his Secretary of State.
Andrew Jackson was elected president, in 1828, and Mr. Clay--to give
him the name he was always known by, regardless of the many positions
he held--once more retired from American politics. In 1831 the people
elected him United States Senator from Kentucky, and in that body he
fought Jackson's policies so strenuously that the Whig party was born,
with Mr. Clay as its legitimate parent. The Whigs nominated him as
their first candidate for president, but he was overwhelmingly
defeated by his old-time enemy, Andrew Jackson. He was the author of
the Compromise tariff of 1832-1833, which did much toward winning him
the sobriquet of the "Great Compromiser." Mr. Clay was reëlected to
the Senate, in 1837; and two years later his great debates with John
C. Calhoun took place. Late in this year of 1839, the Whig political
bosses set him aside and nominated William Henry Harrison for
president and he was elected. In 1842 Henry Clay was retired to
private life for the third time, but two years later he was again the
candidate of the Whigs for president, and he was defeated by a
comparatively unknown man, James K. Polk of Tennessee--the only
Speaker of the House who has ever been elected president of the United
States. The year of 1849 found Henry Clay once more in the Senate, but
he was now old and very feeble. The great Compromise of 1850 sapped
his rapidly waning strength, though it greatly added to his fame as a
statesman. On June 29, 1852, Henry Clay died at Washington City, in
the seventy-sixth year of his age. His body was brought back to the
land he loved so well, and to which he had brought world-wide fame,
and was buried at Lexington, where a grateful people have erected a
cloud-tipped monument to his memory. He is one of the American
immortals, though it is not at all difficult to quarrel with many of
his public acts. He carried the name and fame of Kentucky into the
remotest corners of the universe, and it would be indeed surprising if
it were not possible to find flaws in a record that was as long as
his. His connection with the Graves-Cilley duel in 1838 appears
unpardonable at this time, but perhaps the whole truth regarding this
infamous affair has not yet been brought out. Considering the patent
fact that few orators can stand the printed page, and that the methods
by which Clay's addresses were preserved were crude and
unsatisfactory, many of the speeches are very readable even unto this
day. They undoubtedly prove, however, that the man behind them, and
not the manner or matter of them, was the thing that made Henry Clay
the most lovable character in American history.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. There are many biographies of Clay, and numerous
collections of his speeches. Carl Schurz's _Henry Clay_ (Boston,
1887, two vols.), is the best account of the statesman; _Henry
Clay_, by Thomas H. Clay (Philadelphia, 1910), is adequate for
Clay the man; and Daniel Mallory's _Life and Speeches of the Hon.
Henry Clay_ (New York, 1844), is the finest collection of his
speeches made hitherto.

REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH[4]

[From _The Life and Speeches of the Hon. Henry Clay_, edited by Daniel
Mallory (New York, 1844, v. i., 4th edition)]

Sir, I am growing old. I have had some little measure of experience in
public life, and the result of that experience has brought me to this
conclusion, that when business, of whatever nature, is to be transacted
in a deliberative assembly, or in private life, courtesy, forebearance,
and moderation, are best calculated to bring it to a successful
conclusion. Sir, my age admonishes me to abstain from involving myself
in personal difficulties; would to God that I could say, I am also
restrained by higher motives. I certainly never sought any collision
with the gentleman from Virginia. My situation at this time is peculiar,
if it be nothing else, and might, I should think, dissuade, at least, a
generous heart from any wish to draw me into circumstances of personal
altercation. I have experienced this magnanimity from some quarters of
the house. But I regret, that from others it appears to have no such
consideration. The gentleman from Virginia was pleased to say, that in
one point at least he coincided with me--in an humble estimate of my
grammatical and philological acquirements, I know my deficiencies. I was
born to no proud patrimonial estate; from my father I inherited only
infancy, ignorance, and indigence. I feel my defects; but, so far as my
situation in early life is concerned, I may, without presumption, say
they are more my misfortune than my fault. But, however I regret my want
of ability to furnish to the gentleman a better specimen of powers of
verbal criticism, I will venture to say, it is not greater than the
disappointment of this committee as to the strength of his argument.

ADDRESS TO LA FAYETTE

[From the same]

General,

The house of representatives of the United States, impelled alike by its
own feelings, and by those of the whole American people, could not have
assigned to me a more gratifying duty than that of presenting to you
cordial congratulations upon the occasion of your recent arrival in the
United States, in compliance with the wishes of Congress, and to assure
you of the very high satisfaction which your presence affords on this
early theatre of your glory and renown. Although but few of the members
who compose this body shared with you in the war of our revolution, all
have, from impartial history, or from faithful tradition, a knowledge of
the perils, the sufferings, and the sacrifices, which you voluntarily
encountered, and the signal services, in America and in Europe, which
you performed for an infant, a distant, and an alien people; and all
feel and own the very great extent of the obligations under which you
have placed our country. But the relations in which you have ever stood
to the United States, interesting and important as they have been, do
not constitute the only motive of the respect and admiration which the
house of representatives entertain for you. Your consistency of
character, your uniform devotion to regulated liberty, in all the
vicissitudes of a long and arduous life, also commands its admiration.
During all the recent convulsions of Europe, amidst, as after the
dispersion of, every political storm, the people of the United States
have beheld you, true to your old principles, firm and erect, cheering
and animating with your well-known voice, the votaries of liberty, its
faithful and fearless champion, ready to shed the last drop of that
blood which here you so freely and nobly spilt, in the same holy cause.

The vain wish has been sometimes indulged, that Providence would allow
the patriot, after death, to return to his country, and to contemplate
the intermediate changes which had taken place; to view the forest
felled, the cities built, the mountains levelled, the canals cut, the
highways constructed, the progress of the arts, advancement of learning,
and the increase of population. General, your present visit to the
United States is a realization of the consoling object of that wish. You
are in the midst of posterity. Every where, you must have been struck
with the great changes, physical and moral, which have occurred since
you left us. Even this very city, bearing a venerated name, alike
endeared to you and to us, has since emerged from the forest which then
covered its site. In one respect you behold us unaltered, and this is in
the sentiment of continued devotion to liberty, and of ardent affection
and profound gratitude to your departed friend, the father of his
country, and to you, and to your illustrious associates in the field and
in the cabinet, for the multiplied blessings which surround us, and for
the very privilege of addressing you which I now exercise. This
sentiment, now fondly cherished by more than ten millions of people,
will be transmitted, with unabated vigor, down the tide of time, through
the countless millions who are destined to inhabit this continent, to
the latest posterity.[5]

FOOTNOTES:

[4] This reply to Randolph was made in the House of Representatives,
in 1824, in the course of the debate between Clay and Randolph.
"During the session of 1823-4, attempts wore made to run at Mr. Clay,
on account of his peculiar situation in being named for the presidency
while Speaker of the House of Representatives, and for his zealous
support of the American system. In a debate on an improvement bill he
encountered Mr. Randolph of Virginia, who had endeavored to provoke
him to reply," and the bit of the debate reproduced here is the answer
the gentleman from Virginia received for his pains.

[5] After the above address, La Fayette rose, and in a tone influenced
by powerful feeling, made an eloquent reply. In 1824 La Fayette
visited the United States, as "the guest of the Nation," and he was
gladly welcomed in many parts of the country. And "on the tenth of
December, 1824, he was introduced in the House of Representatives by a
committee appointed for that purpose. The general, being conducted to
the sofa placed for his reception, the Speaker (Mr. Clay), addressed
him" in the very happy words given above.

JOHN J. AUDUBON

John James Audubon, the celebrated ornithologist, was born at
Mandeville, Louisiana, May 5, 1780. He was educated in France under
private tutors, but his consuming love of Nature and especially of
bird-life, was too strong to keep him in a beaten path of study, so
most of his time was spent in the woods and fields. When seventeen
years old Audubon returned to the United States to settle upon his
father's estate, "Mill Grove," near Philadelphia. There he devoted his
entire time to hunting, fishing, drawing, and music. Some months later
he met and fell in love with his nearest neighbor, Lucy Bakewell, a
young English girl. "Too young and too useless to be married," as he
himself afterwards wrote, his about-to-be father-in-law, William
Bakewell, advised Audubon to become a New York business man. With his
friend, Ferdinand Rozier, whom he had met in France, and who was then
connected with a French firm in Philadelphia, he visited Kentucky,
late in 1806, "thought well of it, and liked it exceedingly." But his
great love of Nature was not to be denied, and his business suffered
accordingly. On April 8, 1808, Audubon was married to Miss Bakewell,
and the next morning left for Pittsburgh, where he and his bride,
accompanied by Rozier, floated down the Ohio river in a flatboat,
which was their bridal tour, with Louisville, Kentucky, as their
destination. Upon reaching Louisville Audubon and Rozier opened a
large store which prospered when Audubon attended to it; "but birds
were birds then as now, and my thoughts were ever and anon turning
toward them as the objects of my greatest delight." His first child,
Victor, was born at Louisville, in 1809. Rozier conducted the store,
and Audubon spent his days in "the darling forests." In 1810 Alexander
Wilson, the Scotch ornithologist and poet, called upon Audubon at his
store in Louisville hoping to obtain his subscription to his work
upon American birds, but Audubon showed him birds he had never seen
before, which seemingly angered the Scot as he afterwards wrote
slightingly of the Kentucky naturalist. Late in 1810 Audubon and
Rozier removed their stock of goods to Henderson, Kentucky, where
their trade was so poor that Rozier was left behind the counter, while
Audubon was compelled to fish and hunt for food. A short time after
their arrival in Henderson, the two partners decided to move to St.
Genevieve on the Mississippi river, but Audubon disliked the
community, sold out to Rozier, and returned to his home in Henderson.
His second son, John Woodhouse, was born at Henderson, in 1812. Two
daughters were also born at Henderson, the first of whom, Lucy, died
in infancy and was buried in her father's garden. His pecuniary
affairs were now greatly reduced, but he continued to draw birds and
quadrupeds. He disposed of Mill Grove and opened a small store in
Henderson, which prospered and put him on his feet again. Audubon was
doing so finely in business now that he purchased a small farm and was
adding to it from time to time. His brother-in-law, Thomas Bakewell,
arrived at Henderson about 1816, and finally persuaded Audubon to
erect a steam-mill on his property at a great expense. For a time this
mill did all the sawing for the country, but in the end it ruined
Audubon and his partners. He left Henderson in 1819, after having
resided in the town for nearly ten years, and set up as a portrait
painter in Louisville, where he was very successful. From Louisville
Audubon went to Cincinnati and from there to New Orleans. In October,
1823, he again settled at Louisville as a painter of "birds,
landscapes, portraits, and even signs." His wife was the only person
in the world who had any faith in his ultimate "arrival" as a famous
naturalist, and the outlook was indeed dark. Audubon quitted
Louisville in March, 1824, and two years later he went to England,
where the first public exhibition of his drawings was held. His first
and most famous work, _Birds of America_, was published at London from
1827 to 1838, issued in numbers, each containing five plates, without
text, the complete work consisting of four folio volumes. Audubon
returned to America in 1829, and he was with his sons at Louisville
for a short time, both of whom were engaged in business there. He went
to New Orleans to see his wife, and together they came to Louisville,
in 1830, to bid the "Kentucky lads," as he called them, goodbye,
before sailing for England. At "the fair Edinburgh," in the fall of
1830, Audubon began the _Ornithological Biographies_ (Edinburgh,
1831-39, 5 vols.), the text to the plates of the _Birds_. In 1840-44
the work was republished in seven volumes, text and plates together,
as _Birds of America_. In 1831 Audubon and his wife returned to
America, and they were again in Louisville with the boys for some
time. In 1833 his famous trip to Labrador was taken, and the following
year found the family in England. The next ten years were passed in
wandering from country to country in search of birds, but, in 1842,
Audubon purchased "Minniesland," now Audubon Park, New York. With his
sons and the Rev. John Bachman he planned the _Quadrupeds of America_,
the last volume of which was issued after his death, which occurred at
"Minniesland" on January 27, 1851. His wife, who wrote his life,
survived him many years, dying at Shelbyville, Kentucky, June 19,
1874, but she is buried by his side on the banks of the Hudson.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life of John James Audubon_, edited by his Widow
(New York, 1869); _Audubon and His Journals_, edited by Maria R.
Audubon (New York, 1900); _John James Audubon_, by John Burroughs
(Boston, 1902).

INDIAN SUMMER ON THE OHIO IN 1810[6]

[From _Audubon and His Journals_, edited by Maria R. Audubon (New
York, 1900, v. ii)]

When my wife, my eldest son (then an infant), and myself were returning
from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, we found it expedient, the waters being
unusually low, to provide ourselves with a _skiff_, to enable us to
proceed to our abode at Henderson. I purchased a large, commodious, and
light boat of that denomination. We procured a mattress, and our friends
furnished us with ready prepared viands. We had two stout negro rowers,
and in this trim we left the village of Shippingport [now within the
corporate limits of Louisville], in expectation of reaching the place of
our destination in a very few days.

It was in the month of October. The autumnal tints already decorated the
shores of that queen of rivers, the Ohio. Every tree was hung with long
and flowing festoons of different species of vines, many loaded with
clustered fruits of varied brilliancy, their rich bronzed carmine
mingling beautifully with the yellow foliage which now predominated over
the yet green leaves, reflecting more lively tints from the clear stream
than ever landscape painter portrayed, or poet imagined. The days were
yet warm. The sun had assumed the rich and glowing hue which at that
season produces the singular phenomenon called there the "Indian
Summer." The moon had rather passed the meridian of her grandeur. We
glided down the river, meeting no other ripple of the water than that
formed by the propulsion of our boat. Leisurely we moved along, gazing
all day on the grandeur and beauty of the wild scenery around us.

Now and then a large catfish rose to the surface of the water, in
pursuit of a shoal of fry, which, starting simultaneously from the
liquid element like so many silver arrows, produced a shower of light,
while the pursuer with open jaws seized the stragglers, and, with a
splash of his tail, disappeared from our view. Other fishes we heard,
uttering beneath our bark a rumbling noise, the strange sound of which
we discovered to proceed from the white perch, for on casting our net
from the bow, we caught several of that species, when the noise ceased
for a time.

Nature, in her varied arrangements, seems to have felt a partiality
towards this portion of our country. As the traveler ascends or
descends the Ohio, he cannot help remarking that alternately, nearly
the whole length of the river, the margin, on one side, is bounded by
lofty hills and a rolling surface, while on the other, extensive
plains of the richest alluvial land are seen as far as the eye can
command the view. Islands of varied size and form rise here and there
from the bosom of the water, and the winding course of the stream
frequently brings you to places where the idea of being on a river of
great length changes to that of floating on a lake of moderate extent.
Some of these islands are of considerable size and value; while
others, small and insignificant, seem as if intended for contrast, and
as serving to enhance the general interest of the scenery. These
little islands are frequently overflowed during great freshets or
floods, and receive at their heads prodigious heaps of drifted timber.
We foresaw with great concern the alterations that cultivation would
soon produce along those delightful banks.

As night came, sinking in darkness the broader portions of the river,
our minds became affected by strong emotions, and wandered far beyond
the present moments. The tinkling of bells told us that the cattle
which bore them were gently roving from valley to valley in search of
food, or returning to their distant homes. The hooting of the Great
Owl, or the muffled noise of its wings, as it sailed smoothly over the
stream, were matters of interest to us; so was the sound of the
boatman's horn, as it came winding more and more softly from afar.
When daylight returned, many songsters burst forth with echoing notes,
more and more mellow to the listening ear. Here and there the lonely
cabin of a squatter struck the eye, giving note of commencing
civilization. The crossing of the stream by a Deer foretold how soon
the hills would be covered with snow.

Many sluggish flatboats we overtook and passed; some laden with
produce from the different head-waters of the small rivers that pour
their tributary streams into the Ohio; others, of less dimensions,
crowded with emigrants from distant parts, in search of a new home.
Purer pleasures I never felt; nor have you, reader, I ween, unless
indeed you have felt the like, and in such company.

The margins of the shores and of the river were, at this season amply
supplied with game. A Wild Turkey, a Grouse, or a Blue-winged Teal,
could be procured in a few moments; and we fared well, for, whenever
we pleased we landed, struck up a fire, and provided as we were with
the necessary utensils, procured a good repast.

Several of these happy days passed, and we neared our home, when, one
evening, not far from Pigeon Creek (a small stream which runs into the
Ohio from the State of Indiana), a loud and strange noise was heard,
so like the yells of Indian warfare, that we pulled at our oars, and
made for the opposite side as fast and as quietly as possible. The
sounds increased, we imagined we heard cries of "murder;" and as we
knew that some depredations had lately been committed in the country
by dissatisfied parties of aborigines, we felt for a while extremely
uncomfortable. Ere long, however, our minds became more calmed, and we
plainly discovered that the singular uproar was produced by an
enthusiastic set of Methodists, who had wandered thus far out of the
common way for the purpose of holding one of their annual
camp-meetings, under the shade of a beech forest. Without meeting with
any other interruption, we reached Henderson, distant from
Shippingport, by water, about two hundred miles.

When I think of these times, and call back to my mind the grandeur and
beauty of those almost uninhabited shores; when I picture to myself
the dense and lofty summits of the forests, that everywhere spread
along the hills and overhung the margins of the stream, unmolested by
the axe of the settler; when I know how dearly purchased the safe
navigation of that river has been, by the blood of many worthy
Virginians; when I see that no longer any aborigines are to be found
there, and that the vast herds of Elk, Deer, and Buffaloes which once
pastured on these hills, and in these valleys, making for themselves
great roads to the several salt-springs, have ceased to exist; when I
reflect that all this grand portion of our Union, instead of being in
a state of nature, is now more or less covered with villages, farms,
and towns, where the din of hammers and machinery is constantly
heard; that the woods are fast disappearing under the axe by day, and
the fire by night; that hundreds of steamboats are gliding to and fro,
over the whole length of the majestic river, forcing commerce to take
root and to prosper at every spot; when I see the surplus population
of Europe coming to assist in the destruction of the forest, and
transplanting civilization into its darkest recesses; when I remember
that these extraordinary changes have all taken place in the short
period of twenty years, I pause, wonder, and although I know all to be
a fact, can scarcely believe its reality.

Whether these changes are for the better or for the worse, I shall not
pretend to say; but in whatever way my conclusions may incline, I feel
with regret that there are on record no satisfactory accounts of the
state of that portion of the country, from the time when our people
first settled in it. This has not been because no one in America is
able to accomplish such an undertaking. Our Irvings and our Coopers
have proved themselves fully competent for the task. It has more
probably been because the changes have succeeded each other with such
rapidity as almost to rival the movements of their pens. However, it
is not too late yet; and I sincerely hope that either or both of them
will ere long furnish the generations to come with those delightful
descriptions which they are so well qualified to give, of the original
state of a country that has been rapidly forced to change her form and
attire under the influence of increasing population. Yes, I hope to
read, ere I close my earthly career, accounts from those delightful
writers of the progress of civilization in our Western Country. They
will speak of the Clarks, the Croghans, the Boones, and many other men
of great and daring enterprise. They will analyze, as it were, into
each component part the country as it once existed, and will render
the picture, as it ought to be, immortal.

FOOTNOTE:

[6] Copyright, 1897, by Charles Scribner's Sons.

HORACE HOLLEY

Horace Holley, old Transylvania University's celebrated president, was
born at Salisbury, Connecticut, February 13, 1781, the son of Luther
Holley, a wealthy merchant. He was fitted at Williams College for Yale,
from which institution he was graduated in 1803. Holley studied law in
New York for awhile, but soon relinquished it for theology, which he
returned to Yale to pursue. In 1805 he was appointed to his first
pastorate. Going to Boston in 1809, as pastor of the Hollis Street
Unitarian church, he at once made a great reputation for himself as an
eloquent pulpit orator. Holley was at Hollis Street for nine years,
during which time he was a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard
University, as well as a member of several civic boards. He was elected
president of Transylvania University, of Lexington, in 1817, and he
journeyed to Kentucky in the following spring, where he went carefully
over the ground and finally decided to accept the position. He entered
almost at once upon the most difficult task of converting a grammar
school into a great university. Success soon crowned his efforts,
however, and Transylvania took her place by the side of Harvard, Yale,
and Princeton, as one of the higher seats of learning in the United
States. In at least one year under the Holley régime, Transylvania had
the largest student body in this country. The institution was as well
known in New York or London, among scholars, as it was in the West.
Several of the professors were men of national reputation, and the
students came from all parts of the United States. Never before in the
South or West has a seat of learning had higher hopes for the future, or
greater success or reputation than had Transylvania under Horace Holley.
Then the Kentucky Presbyterians and others launched Dame Rumor,
freighted with falsehoods and misrepresentations galore. The president
was charged with every crime in the calendar: he was an atheist, an
agnostic, a blasphemer, a wine-bibber, and all that was evil. The whole
truth was this: he was a Unitarian, holding the Christ to be the
greatest personality in history, but denying him as the very Son of God.
This his prejudiced, ill-advised enemies were unable to understand.
Driven to desperation by the bitter crusade that was being waged against
him, Holley resigned, in March, 1827, after nine years of great success
as head of the University, which after his departure, fell away to
almost nothing. He went from Kentucky to Louisiana, where he endeavored
to re-organize the College of New Orleans, and in which work he wore
himself out. Late in the summer he and his wife took passage for New
York, but he contracted yellow-fever, and, on July 31, 1827, he died.
His body was consigned to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but his fame
is secure as an American educator of distinguished ability. The finest
bit of prose he ever wrote, perhaps, is contained in one of his Kentucky
letters to his wife in Boston, written while he was in Lexington looking
over the lay of the land, which, as subsequent events proved, he utterly
failed to anticipate in its most dangerous and damning aspect.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _A Discourse on the Genius and Character of the Rev.
Horace Holley, LL. D._, by Charles Caldwell, M. D. (Boston, 1828);
_More Colonial Homesteads_, by Marion Harland (New York, 1899);
_Lore of the Meadowland_, by J. W. Townsend (Lexington, Kentucky,
1911).

MR. CLAY AND COLONEL MEADE

[From _A Discourse on the Genius and Character of the Rev. Horace
Holley, LL. D._, by Charles Caldwell, M. D. (Boston, 1828)]

Lexington, May 27th, 1818.

I wrote a hasty letter to you on the night of my arrival. I shall now
he able to speak a little more in detail.

The town and the vicinity are very handsome. The streets are broad,
straight, paved, clean, and have rows of trees on each side. The
houses are of brick almost universally, many of them in the midst of
fields, and have a very rural and charming appearance. The taste is
for low houses, generally two, sometimes even but one story high, like
English cottages. This taste gives an effect that eyes accustomed to
the high buildings of an Atlantic city, where there is but little
room, are not at first pleased with. But it is a taste adapted to the
circumstances, and to me is not unpleasant.

I have taken lodgings at the principal hotel of the place, where I have
a drawing-room to receive calls, which were yesterday until dinner
almost innumerable.... In the afternoon I walked about town with Mr.
Clay, and called at a few charming houses. I visited also the Athenaeum,
an institution not yet furnished with many books, but well supplied with
newspapers, and the best periodicals. I find everything of this sort,
which is valuable, from Boston and the other Atlantic cities.

This morning I breakfasted at Mr. Clay's, who lives a mile and a half
from town. He arrived here only three days before me. Ashland is a
very pleasant place, handsomer than I anticipated. The grounds are
beautiful, the lawns and walks extensive, the shrubbery luxuriant, and
the garden well supplied. The native forest of ash in the rear adds a
charming effect to the whole. After breakfast Mr. Clay rode in with
me, and we went with the trustees, by appointment, to the college, to
visit the professors and students. They were all collected in the
largest hall to receive us. I made a short address, which was received
in a kind manner. I was then conducted to the library, the apparatus,
and the recitation rooms. The library is small, and the apparatus
smaller. There is no regular division of students into classes as in
other colleges, and but few laws. Everything is to be done, and so
much the better, as nothing is to be reformed. Almost the whole is
proposed to be left to me to arrange. I am now making all necessary
inquiries, and a meeting of the trustees is to be called next week.

After this visit, I went with a party of ladies and gentlemen, nine
miles into the country to the seat of Colonel [David] Meade [1744-1838]
where we dined and passed the day. This gentleman, who is near seventy,
is a Virginian of the old school. He has been a good deal in England,
in his youth, and brought home with him English notions of a country
seat, though he is a great republican in politics. He and his wife dress
in the costume of the olden time. He has the square coat and great
cuffs, the vest of the court, short breeches, and white stockings, at
all times. Mrs. Meade has the long waist, the white apron, the stays,
the ruffles about the elbows, and the cap of half a century ago. She is
very mild and ladylike, and though between sixty and seventy, plays upon
the piano-forte with the facility and cheerfulness of a young lady. Her
husband resembles Colonel Pickering in the face, and the shape of the
head. He is entirely a man of leisure, never having followed any
business, and never using his fortune but in adorning his place and
entertaining his friends and strangers. No word is ever sent to him that
company is coming. To do so offends him. But a dinner--he dines at the
hour of four--is always ready for visitors; and servants are always in
waiting. Twenty of us went out today, without warning, and were
entertained luxuriously on the viands of the country. Our drink
consisted of beer, toddy, and water. Wine, being imported and expensive,
he never gives; nor does he allow cigars to be smoked in his presence.
His house consists of a cluster of rustic cottages, in front of which
spreads a beautiful, sloping lawn, as smooth as velvet. From this
diverge, in various direction, and forming vistas terminated by
picturesque objects, groves and walks extending over some acres. Seats,
Chinese temples, verdant banks, and alcoves are interspersed at
convenient distances. The lake, over which presides a Grecian temple,
that you may imagine to be the residence of the water nymphs, has in it
a small island, which communicates with the shore by a white bridge of
one arch. The whole is surrounded by a low rustic fence of stone,
surmounted and almost hidden by honey-suckle and roses, now in full
flower, and which we gathered in abundance to adorn the ladies.
Everything is laid out for walking and pleasure. His farm he rents, and
does nothing for profit. The whole is in rustic taste. You enter from
the road, through a gate between rude and massive columns, a field
without pretension, wind a considerable distance through a noble park to
an inner gate, the capitals to whose pillars are unique, being formed of
the roots of trees, carved by nature. Then the rich scene of
cultivation, of verdure and flower-capped hedges, bursts upon you. There
is no establishment like this in our country. Instead of a description,
I might have given you its name, "_Chaumiere du Prairies_."

CONSTANTINE S. RAFINESQUE

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, the learned, eccentric scientist of
Kentucky and the West, was born near Constantinople, Turkey, October
22, 1783. He was of French-German descent. His boyhood years were
spent in Italy and in traveling on the Continent. Rafinesque came to
America in 1802, and he remained in this country but three years, when
he returned to Italy; and there the subsequent ten years of his life
were passed. In 1809 he married, after a fashion, a Sicilian woman,
Josephine Vaccaro, who bore him two children. Rafinesque returned to
America in 1815, and a short time after his arrival, he met his former
friend, John D. Clifford, of Philadelphia and Lexington--twin-towns in
those days--"the only man he ever loved," who persuaded him to come
out to Kentucky. At Henderson, Kentucky, Rafinesque met the great
Audubon, who took him under his roof, and who told him many amusing
tales of the fishes of the Ohio--which the little scientist believed,
as coming from a famous man--and which caused him no end of trouble
and work in after years. Audubon ridiculed him to his face, which the
simple-minded man could not understand; and in his _Journals_ the
ornithologist has much fun at his guest's expense. That he treated him
very badly, no one can deny. Through Clifford's influence, probably,
Rafinesque was appointed, in 1819, to the chair of natural science and
modern languages in Transylvania University. This was during the
presidency of Horace Holley, when the old University was at the
high-tide of its history, but the diminutive scientist, though
heralded as "the most learned man in America," was not received as
such in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky an hundred years ago. From
the president down to the children of the little city he was looked
upon as an impossible creature. Seven of the best years of his life
were spent in the service of the University and of the town. His
boldest dream for the town was a Botanical Garden, modeled upon the
gardens of France, and though he did actually make a splendid start
toward this ideal, in the end all his plans came to nothing. In June,
1825, Rafinesque left Lexington, never to return. He went to
Philadelphia, where the remaining fifteen years of his life were
spent. Death discovered the little fellow among his books, plants, and
poverty, September 18, 1840, in a miserable, rat-ridden garret on Race
street, Philadelphia. Rafinesque's publications reach the surprising
number of 447, consisting of books, pamphlets, magazine articles,
translations, and reprints. His most important works are _Ichthyologia
Ohiensis, or Natural History of the Fishes Inhabiting the River Ohio
and its Tributary Streams_ (Lexington, 1820), a reprint of which his
biographer, Dr. Call, has published (Cleveland, 1899); and his
_Ancient Annals of Kentucky_, which Humphrey Marshall printed as an
introduction to his _History of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, 1824). The
oversheets of this were made into a pamphlet of thirty-nine pages. The
little work considers the antiquities of the State, and is the
starting point for all latter-day writers upon "the prehistoric men of
Kentucky." Imagination and fact run riotously together, yet the work
has been correctly characterized as "the most remarkable history of
Kentucky that was ever written, or ever will be."

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _A Kentucky Cardinal_, by James Lane Allen (New
York, 1894); _Life and Writings of Rafinesque_, by Richard E.
Call (Louisville, Kentucky, 1895); _Rafinesque: A Sketch of his
Life_, by T. J. Fitzpatrick (Des Moines, Iowa, 1911).

GEOLOGICAL ANNALS OF THE REVOLUTIONS OF NATURE IN KENTUCKY

[From _Ancient Annals of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1824)]

1. Every complete history of a country ought to include an account of
the physical changes and revolutions, which it may have undergone.

2. The documents for such geological survey, are to be found
everywhere in the bowels of the earth, its rocks and strata, with the
remains of organized bodies imbedded therein, which are now considered
as the medals of nature.

3. The soil of Kentucky shows, like many other countries, that it has
once been the bed of the sea. In James's Map, the primitive ocean is
supposed to have covered North America, by having a former level of
6000 feet above the actual level. Since the highest lands in Kentucky
do not exceed 1800 feet above the level of the actual ocean, they were
once covered with at least 4200 feet of water.

4. The study of the soil of Kentucky, proves evidently the successive
and gradual retreat of the salt waters, without evincing any proofs of
any very violent or sudden disruptions or emersions of land, nor
eruptions of the ocean, except some casual accidents, easily ascribed
to earthquakes, salses and submarine volcanoes.

5. There are no remains of land or burning volcanoes in Kentucky, nor
of any considerable fresh water lake. All the strata are nearly
horizontal, with valleys excavated by the tides and streams during the
soft state of the strata.

6. After these preliminary observations, I shall detail the successive
evolution of this soil and its productions, under six distinct periods
of time, which may be compared to the six epochs or days of creation,
and supposed to have lasted an indefinite number of ages.

MANN BUTLER

Mann Butler, the first Kentucky historian who worked with
comparatively modern methods, eliminating personal prejudices and
imagination, was born at Baltimore, July, 1784. At the age of three
years he was taken to the home of his grandfather in Chelsea, England.
Mann Butler returned to the United States, in 1798, and entered St.
Mary's College, Georgetown, D. C., from which institution he was
afterwards graduated in the arts, medicine, and law. His tastes were
decidedly literary, and he preferred law to medicine as being,
perhaps, more in line with literature. He emigrated to Kentucky,
locating at Lexington, in 1806, for the practice of law. He later
abandoned law for pedagogy, opening an academy at Versailles,
Kentucky. Some years later he taught in Maysville and Frankfort, and
was then called to a professorship in Transylvania University,
Lexington, where he remained for several years. In 1831 Butler removed
to Louisville, where he was engaged in teaching for fifteen years. His
_History of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1834; Cincinnati, 1836) was, after
Filson's florid sentences, Rafinesque's imagination, and Marshall's
prejudices and castigations, most welcome and timely. He was
microscopic in finding facts, fair, having no enemies to punish, an
excellent chronicler, in short, and doing a work that was much needed.
The Kentucky legislature took a keen interest in his history,
rendering him great assistance. Butler's _Appeal from the
Misrepresentations of James Hall, Respecting the History of Kentucky
and the West_ (Frankfort, 1837), was a just criticism of the
Cincinnati writer's _Sketches of History in the West_ (Philadelphia,
1835), a work in which fact and fiction are well-nigh inseparable.
Mann Butler spent the last seven years of his life in St. Louis,
teaching and in preparing a history of the Ohio valley, which he left
in manuscript, but which, together with his library, was afterwards
destroyed by Federal soldiers during the Civil War. He was killed in
Missouri, in 1852, while a passenger on a Pacific train which was
wrecked by the falling of a bridge spanning the Gasconade river. Mann
Butler had many of the qualities required in a great historian, and
the work he did has lived well and will live longer.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington,
1882); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New York,
1887, v. i).

PIONEER VISITORS

[From _A History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky_ (Louisville,
Kentucky, 1834)]

During this same year [1769], a party of about forty stout hunters,
"from New River, Holstein and Clinch" united in a hunting expedition
west of the Cumberland Mountains.

Nine of this party, led on by Col. James Knox, reached Kentucky; and,
from the time they were absent from home, they "obtained the name of
the _Long Hunters_." This expedition reached "the country south of the
Kentucky river," and became acquainted with Green river, and the lower
part of the Cumberland.

In addition to these parties, so naturally stimulated by the ardent
curiosity incident to early and comparatively, idle society, the
claimants of military bounty lands which had been obtained from the
British crown, for services against the French, furnished a new and keen
band of western explorers. Their land warrants were surveyed on the
Kenhawa and the Ohio; though most positively against the very letter of
the royal proclamation of '63. But at this distance from the royal
court, it was nothing new in the history of government that edicts
emanating, even from the king in council, should be but imperfectly
regarded. However, this may be, land warrants were actually surveyed on
the Kenhawa as early as 1772, and in 1773, several surveyors were
deputied to lay out bounty lands on the Ohio river.

Amongst others Thomas Bullitt, uncle to the late Alexander Scott
Bullitt, first lieutenant governor of Kentucky; and Hancock Taylor,
engaged in this adventurous work. These gentlemen with their company
were overtaken on the 28th of May, 1773, by the McAfees, whose exertions
will hereafter occupy a conspicuous station in this narrative.

On the 29th, the party in one boat and four canoes, reached the Ohio
river, and elected Bullitt their captain.

There is a romantic incident connected with this gentleman's descent of
the Ohio, evincing singular intrepidity and presence of mind; it is
taken from his journal, as Mr. [Humphrey] Marshall says, and the author
has found it substantially confirmed by the McAfee papers. While on his
voyage, he left his boat and went alone through the woods to the Indian
town of Old Chillicothe, on the Scioto. He arrived in the midst of the
town undiscovered by the Indians, until he was waving his white flag as
a token of peace. He was immediately asked what news? Was he from the
Long Knife? And why, if he was a peace-messenger, he had not sent a
runner? Bullitt, undauntedly replied, that he had no bad news; was from
the Long Knife, and as the red men and the whites were at peace, he had
come among his brothers to have friendly talk with them, about living on
the other side of the Ohio; that he had no runner swifter than himself;
and, that he was in haste and could not wait the return of a runner.
"Would you," said he, "if you were very hungry, and had killed a deer,
send your squaw to town to tell the news, and wait her return before you
eat?" This simple address to their own feelings, soon put the Indians in
good humor, and at his desire a council was assembled to hear his talk
the next day. Captain Bullitt then made strong assurances of friendship
on the part of the whites and acknowledged that these "Shawanees and
Delawares, our nearest neighbors," "did not get any of the money or
blankets given for the land, which I and my people are going to settle.
But it is agreed by the great men, who own the land, that they will make
a present to both the Delawares and the Shawanees, the next year; and
the year following, that shall be as good." On the ensuing day,
agreeably to the very deliberate manner of the Indians in council,
Captain Bullitt was informed, that "he seemed kind and friendly, and
that it pleased them well." That as "to settling the country on the
other side of the Ohio with your people, we are particularly pleased
that they are not to _disturb_ us in our hunting. For we must hunt, to
kill meat for our women and children, and to get something to buy our
powder and lead with, and to get us blankets and clothing." In these
talks, there seems a strange want of the usual sagacity of the Indians
as to the consequences of white men settling on their hunting grounds;
so contrary to their melancholy experience for a century and a half
previous; yet, the narrative is unimpeachable. On the part of Bullitt,
too, the admission of _no compensation_ to the Delawares and Shawanees,
appears to be irreconcilable with the treaty at Fort Stanwix with the
master tribes of the confederacy, the Six Nations. However, this may be,
the parties separated in perfect harmony, and Captain Bullitt proceeded
to the Falls. Here he pitched his camp above the mouth of Bear-grass
creek, retiring of a night to the upper point of the shoal above _Corn
Island_, opposite to the present city of Louisville. It was this
gentleman, who, according to the testimony of Jacob Sodowsky, a
respectable farmer, late of Jessamine county, in this State, first laid
off the town of Louisville, in August, 1773. He likewise surveyed
Bullitt's Lick in the adjoining county, of the same name.

ZACHARY TAYLOR

Zachary Taylor, twelfth president of the United States, was a Kentuckian
save for his accidental birth near Orange, Virginia, September 24, 1784.
His father, Richard Taylor, had been planning for many years to remove
to Kentucky, but his vacillation gave Virginia another president. When
but nine months old Zachary Taylor was brought to Kentucky, the family
settling near Louisville. He "grew up to manhood with the yell of the
savage and the crack of the rifle almost constantly ringing in his
ears." The first twenty-four years of his life were passed wholly in
Kentucky amid all the dangers of the Western wilderness. He was
fighting Indians almost before he could hold a rifle at arm's length,
and in such an environment his education was, of course, very limited.
Taylor entered the army, in 1808, serving in the War of 1812, in Black
Hawk's war of 1832, and against the Seminole Indians (1836-1837). In
1837 he was brevetted brigadier-general. In 1838 General Taylor was
placed in command of the military stations in Florida; and in 1845 he
took command of the army on the Texas border. The next five years of
General Taylor's life is the history of the Mexican War. At Palo Alto,
Monterey, and at Buena Vista, on February 22-23, 1847, where he crushed
Santa Anna, he was the absolute man of the hour, the hero of the
country. On the strength of his military renown, General Taylor was
elected as the Whig candidate for president of the United States, in
1848, defeating General Lewis Cass of Michigan, and former president,
Martin Van Buren, of New York. He was inaugurated in March, 1849, but he
died at the White House, Washington, July 9, 1850. The country was torn
asunder with many important questions during Taylor's administration,
which, though brief, was a stormy one. His remains were interred at his
old home near Louisville--the only president ever buried in this
State--and a ruined monument marks the grave at this time. In 1908 a
volume of his _Letters from the Battlefields of the Mexican War_
appeared.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Some Notable Families of America_, by Annah
Robinson Watson; _The War with Mexico_, by H. O. Ladd (New York,
1835); _General Taylor_, by O. O. Howard (New York, 1892).

A LETTER TO HENRY CLAY

[From _The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay_, edited by Calvin
Colton (New York, 1855)]

Baton Rouge, La., December 28, 1847.

My dear Sir,--Your kind and acceptable letter of the 13th instant,
congratulating me on my safe return to the United States, and for the
complimentary and flattering terms you have been pleased to notice my
services, I beg leave to tender you my sincere thanks.

The warm and hearty reception I have met with from so many of my
fellow-citizens, where I have mingled among them since my return, in
addition to their manifestations of their high appreciation and
approval of my conduct while in Mexico, has been truly gratifying, and
has ten-fold more than compensated me for the dangers and toils
encountered in the public service, as well as for the privations in
being so long separated from my family and friends; yet there are
circumstances connected with my operations in that country which I can
never forget, and which I must always think of with feelings of the
deepest sorrow and regret.

I left Mexico after it was determined the column under my orders was
to act on the defensive, and after the capital of the enemy had fallen
into our hands, and their army dispersed, on a short leave of absence,
to visit my family, and to attend to some important private affairs,
which could not well be arranged without my being present, and which
had been too long neglected. After reaching New Orleans, I informed
the Secretary of War that should my presence in Mexico be deemed
necessary at any time, I was ready to return, and that a communication
on that or any other subject connected with my public duties would
reach me if addressed to this place. I therefore feel bound to remain
here, or in the vicinity, until the proper authorities at Washington
determine what disposition is to be made of or with me. Under this
state of things I do not expect to have it in my power to visit
Kentucky, although it would afford me much real pleasure to mix once
more with my numerous relatives and friends in that patriotic State,
to whom I am devotedly attached; as well as again to visit, if not the
place of my nativity, where I was reared from infancy to early
manhood. And let me assure you I duly appreciate your kind invitation
to visit you at your own hospitable home, and should anything occur
which will enable me to avail myself of it, I will embrace the
opportunity with much real pleasure.

I regret to say, I found my family, or rather Mrs. Taylor, on my
return, in feeble health, as well as my affairs in any other than a
prosperous condition; the latter was, however, to be expected, and I
must devote what time I can spare, or can be spared from my public
duties, in putting them in order as far as I can do so.

Should circumstances so turn out as will induce you to visit Washington
the present winter, I trust you will take every precaution to protect
yourself while traveling from the effects of the severe cold weather you
must necessarily encounter in crossing the mountains, particularly so
after having passed several of the last winters in the South.

The letter which you did me the honor to address to me, referred to,
reached me on the eve of my leaving Monterey to return to the United
States, and was at once replied to, which reply I flatter myself
reached you shortly after writing your last communication; in which I
stated, although I had received some letters from individuals in
Kentucky, calculated, or perhaps intended, to produce unkind feelings
on my part toward you, even admitting such was the case, their object
has not been accomplished in the slightest degree, and I hope it will
never be the case.

Please present me mostly kindly to your excellent lady, and wishing
you and yours continued health and prosperity, I remain, with respect
and esteem, etc.

DANIEL DRAKE

Daniel Drake, "the Franklin of the West," was born at Plainfield, New
Jersey, October 20, 1785. When he was but three years old, his family
removed to Mayslick, Mason county, Kentucky, where they dwelt in a log
cabin for some time. When he was sixteen years of age, Drake went to
Cincinnati to study medicine, the city's first medical student. He
later attended lectures at the medical school of the University of
Pennsylvania. On his return to Kentucky, Dr. Drake practiced his
profession near his home at Mayslick, Kentucky, but he shortly
afterwards went to Cincinnati, where he became a distinguished
physician and author. In 1816 he was appointed professor of materia
medica and botany in the medical school of Transylvania University,
and he held this chair for one year. He returned to Transylvania, in
1823, and this time he remained for four years. In 1835 Dr. Drake
organized the medical department of Cincinnati College. Four years
later he went to Louisville to accept the chair of clinical medicine
and pathological anatomy in the University of Louisville, which he
occupied for ten years. He returned to Cincinnati two years before his
death, which occurred there, November 6, 1852. Dr. Drake's
publications include _Topography, Climate, and Diseases of Cincinnati_
(1810); _Picture of Cincinnati_ (Cincinnati, 1815); _Practical Essays
on Medical Education_ (1832); _Systematic Treatise on the Principal
Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America_ (Philadelphia, 1850;
1852), a work which was characterized by Judge James Hall of
Cincinnati as "the most important and valuable work ever written in
the United States. The subject is large. The work could not be
compiled. The subject was new, and the materials were to be collected
from original sources, from observation, personal inspection, oral
evidence, etc. It occupied many years; and was, probably, in
contemplation during the whole or most part of Dr. Drake's long
professional life." To-day Dr. Drake's most popular work is _Pioneer
Life in Kentucky_, a series of reminiscential letters addressed to his
children, concerning early times in Kentucky. It was issued by Robert
Clarke, the Cincinnati publisher in his well-known Ohio Valley
Historical Series. This is a charming volume and it has been much
quoted and praised by Western writers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New
York, 1887, v. ii); _Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio
Valley_, by W. H. Venable (Cincinnati, 1891); Allibone's
_Dictionary of Authors_ (Philadelphia, 1897).

MAYSLICK, KENTUCKY, IN 1800

[From _Pioneer Life in Kentucky_ (Cincinnati, 1870)]

Mayslick, although scarcely a village, was at once an emporium and
capital for a tract of country six or eight miles in diameter, and
embracing several hundred families, of which those in father's
neighborhood were tolerably fair specimens. Uncle Abraham Drake kept a
store, and Shotwell and Morris kept taverns; besides them there were a
few poor mechanics. Uncle Cornelius Drake was a farmer merely, and
lived a little out of the center of the station; the great men of
which were the three I have just named. With this limited population,
it seems, even down to this time, wonderful to me that such gatherings
and such scenes should have been transacted there. They commenced
within five years after its settlement, and increasing with the
progress of surrounding population, continued in full vigor long after
I left home for Cincinnati. It was the place for holding regimental
militia musters, when all the boys and old men of the surrounding
country, not less than those who stood enrolled, would assemble; and
before dispersing at night, the training was quite eclipsed by a
heterogeneous drama of foot racing, pony racing, wrestling, fighting,
drunkenness and general uproar. It was also a place for political
meetings and stump conflict by opposing candidates, and after
intellectual performances there generally followed an epilogue of
oaths, yells, loud blows, and gnashing of teeth. Singing-schools were
likewise held at the same place in a room of Deacon Morris's tavern. I
was never a scholar, which I regret, for it has always been a grief
with me that I did not learn music in early life. I occasionally
attended. As in all country singing-schools, sacred music only was
taught, but in general there was not much display of sanctity. I have
a distinct remembrance of one teacher only. He was a Yankee, without a
family, between forty and fifty years of age, and wore a matted mass
of thick hair over the place where men's ears are usually found. Thus
protected, his were never seen, and after the opinion spread abroad
that by some misfortune they had been cut off, he "cut and run."

The infant capital was, still further, the local seat of justice; and
Saturday was for many years, at all times I might say, the regular term
time. Instead of trying cases at home, two or three justices of the
peace would come to the Lick on that day, and hold their separate
courts. This, of course, brought thither all the litigants of the
neighborhood with their friends and witnesses; all who wished to
purchase at the store would postpone their visit to the same day; all
who had to replenish their jugs of whiskey did the same thing; all who
had business with others expected to meet them there, as our city
merchants, at noon, expect to meet each other on 'change; finally, all
who thirsted after drink, fun, frolic, or fighting, of course, were
present. Thus Saturday was a day of largely suspended field labor, but
devoted to public business, social pleasure, dissipation, and beastly
drunkenness. You might suppose that the presence of civil magistrates
would have repressed some of these vices, but it was not so. Each day
provided a bill of fare for the next. A new trade in horses, another
horse race, a cock-fight, or a dog-fight, a wrestling match, or a
pitched battle between two bullies, who in fierce encounter would lie on
the ground scratching, pulling hair, choking, gouging out each other's
eyes, and biting off each other's noses, in the manner of bull-dogs,
while a Roman circle of interested lookers-on would encourage the
respective gladiators with shouts which a passing demon might have
mistaken for those of hell. In the afternoon, the men and boys of
business and sobriety would depart, and at nightfall the dissipated
would follow them, often two on a horse, reeling and yelling as I saw
drunken Indians do in the neighborhood of Fort Leavenworth, in the
summer of 1844. But many would be too much intoxicated to mount their
horses, and must therefore remain till Sunday morning.

MARY A. HOLLEY

Mrs. Mary Austin Holley, the historian of Texas, was born at New
Haven, Connecticut, in 1786. On January 1, 1805, she was married to
the Rev. Horace Holley, who, in the fall of that year, became pastor
of a church at Greenfield Hill, Connecticut. Mrs. Holley, of course,
was in Boston with her husband from 1809 to 1818; and she accompanied
him to Lexington, Kentucky, when he accepted the presidency of
Transylvania University. Mrs. Holley was one of the few persons whom
the eccentric scientist, Rafinesque, set down as having been very kind
to him while he was connected with the University. She lived in
Lexington until the spring of 1827, when she went with her husband to
New Orleans. She wrote a poem, _On Leaving Kentucky_, the first stanza
of which is as follows:

Farewell to the land in which broad rivers flow,
And vast prairies bloom as in Eden's young day!
Farewell to the land in which lofty trees grow,
And the vine and the mistletoe's empire display.

She later embarked with her husband for New York, and it was her pen
that so vividly described his death on shipboard. After Dr. Holley's
death his widow returned to Lexington, Kentucky, and wrote the memoir
for Dr. Charles Caldwell's _Discourse on the Genius and Character of the
Rev. Horace Holley, LL. D._ (Boston, 1828). Mrs. Holley left Kentucky in
1831 and emigrated to Texas under the protection of her celebrated
kinsman, General Stephen Fuller Austin, a Transylvania University man,
and the founder of Texas. Her _Texas_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1836), was
one of the first histories of that country ever published. Mrs. Holley
was a widely read woman, theology being her favorite study, and, like
her husband, she was a Unitarian. In person she was said to be a very
charming woman. Mrs. Holley spent the last several years of her life at
New Orleans, in which city she died on August 2, 1846.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Transylvanian_ (Lexington, January, 1829);
Adams's _Dictionary of American Authors_ (Boston, 1905).

TEXAS WOMEN

[From _Texas_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1836)]

Living in a wild country under circumstances requiring constant
exertion, forms the character to great and daring enterprise. Women thus
situated are known to perform exploits, which the effeminate men of
populous cities might tremble at. Hence there are more Dianas and
_Esther Stanhopes_ than one in Texas. It is not uncommon for ladies to
mount their mustangs and hunt with their husbands, and with them to camp
out for days on their excursions to the sea shore for fish and oysters.
All visiting is done on horseback, and they will go fifty miles to a
ball with their silk dresses, made perhaps in Philadelphia or New
Orleans, in their saddle-bags. Hardy, vigorous constitutions, free
spirits, and spontaneous gaiety are thus induced, and continued a rich
legacy to their children, who, it is to be hoped, will sufficiently
value the blessing not to squander it away, in their eager search for
the luxuries and refinements of polite life. Women have capacity for
greatness, but they require occasions to bring it out. They require,
perhaps, stronger motives than men--they have stronger barriers to break
through of indolence and habit--but, when roused, they are quick to
discern and unshrinking to act. _Lot was unfortunate in his wife._ Many
a wife in Texas has proved herself the better half, and many a widow's
heart has prompted her to noble daring.

Mrs. ---- left her home in Kentucky with her six sons, and _no other
jewels_. There was good land and room in Texas. Hither she came with
the first settlers, at a time when the Indians were often troublesome
by coming in large companies and encamping near an isolated farm,
demanding of its helpless proprietors, not then too well provided for,
whatever of provisions or other things struck their fancies. One of
these _foraging_ parties, not over nice in their demands, stationed
themselves in rather too near proximity to the dwelling of this
veteran lady. They were so well satisfied with their position, and
scoured the place so completely, that she ventured to remonstrate,
gently at first, then more vehemently. All would not do: the
_pic-nics_ would not budge an inch; and moreover threatened life if
she did not forbear from further expressions of impatience. The good
woman was _armed_. She buckled on her _breastplate_ of _courage_, if
not of _righteousness_, and with her children and women servants, all
her household around her, sent for the chief, and very boldly
expostulating with him, _commanded_ him to depart on the instant at
the peril of his tribe; or by a signal she would call in her whole
_people_, numerous and formidable, and exterminate his race. She was
no more troubled with the Indians. She lives comfortably with her
thriving family and thriving fortune, and with great credit to
herself, on the road between Brazoria and San Felipe, in the same
house now famed for its hospitality and comfort. It is the usual
stopping place for travellers on that route, who are not a little
entertained with the border stories and characteristic jests there
related, by casual companies meeting for the night and sharing the
same apartment. It was thus that the above incident, much more
exemplified, was drawn from the hostess herself. A volume of
_reminiscences_ thus collected, racy with the marvellous, would not be
_unapt_ to modern taste, and the modern science of book-making.

JOHN J. CRITTENDEN

John Jordan Crittenden, a Kentucky statesman and orator of national
reputation, was born near Versailles, Kentucky, September 10, 1787. He
was graduated from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg,
Virginia, studied law, and was admitted to the Frankfort bar.
Crittenden served in the War of 1812; and in 1816 he was a member of
the Kentucky legislature. In the following year he was elected United
States Senator from Kentucky, his party, the Whig, then being in power
in this State. From 1827 to 1829 Crittenden was United States
Attorney for the district of Kentucky; and in 1835 he was again sent
to the Senate, with Henry Clay as his colleague. President William
Henry Harrison made him his Attorney-General, in 1841, and he resigned
his seat in the Senate. When John Tyler succeeded to the presidency
six months later, on the death of Harrison, Crittenden withdrew from
the cabinet portfolio, and he was almost immediately returned to the
Senate by the legislature of Kentucky. He served until 1848, when he
was elected Governor of Kentucky. Governor Crittenden was the most
distinguished, if not indeed the ablest, chief executive this
Commonwealth has ever known. He resigned the governorship, in 1850, in
order to become President Fillmore's Attorney-General, which position
he held for three years. In 1855 Crittenden was for the fourth time
elected United States Senator from Kentucky. As the war between the
States approached, Senator Crittenden, though a Southerner, chose the
cause of the Union, lining up with the administration heart and soul.
In the beginning he did his utmost to prevent the war, and, failing,
he exerted his entire energies to aid Abraham Lincoln and the North to
prosecute it. In 1860 the Senator urged his famous Compromise,
providing for the reëstablishment of the old slave-line of 36' 30 N.,
and for the enforcement of the fugitive-slave laws, but it was never
moulded into law. The last two years of his life were spent as a
member of the lower House of Congress, where he continued his fight
for the supremacy of the Constitution. Senator Crittenden died near
Frankfort, Kentucky, July 26, 1863, thus surviving his greatest friend
and fellow patriot, Henry Clay, more than eleven years.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life of John J. Crittenden_, by Mrs. Chapman
Coleman (Philadelphia, 1871); _History of Kentucky_, by R. H.
Collins (Covington, 1882).

EULOGY UPON ASSOCIATE JUSTICE McKINLEY

[From _The Life of John J. Crittenden_, edited by his daughter,
Mrs. Chapman Coleman (Philadelphia, 1871)]

At the opening of the court this morning, Mr. Crittenden, the
Attorney-General of the United States, addressed the court as follows:

"Since its adjournment yesterday, the members of the bar and officers
of the court held a meeting and adopted resolutions expressive of
their high sense of the public and private worth of the Hon. John
McKinley, one of the justices of this court, and their deep regret at
his death. By the same meeting I was requested to present those
resolutions to the court, and to ask that they might be entered on its
records, and I now rise to perform that honored task.

"Besides the private grief which naturally attends it, the death of a
member of this court, which is the head of the great, essential, and
vital department of the government, must always be an event of public
interest and importance.

"I had the good fortune to be acquainted with Judge McKinley from my
earliest manhood. In the relations of private life he was frank,
hospitable, affectionate. In his manners he was simple and unaffected,
and his character was uniformly marked with manliness, integrity, and
honor. Elevation to the bench of the Supreme Court made no change in
him. His honors were borne meekly, without ostentation or presumption.

"He was a candid, impartial, and righteous judge. Shrinking from no
responsibility, he was fearless in the performance of his duty, seeking
only to do right, and fearing nothing but to do wrong. Death has now set
her seal to his character, making it unchangeable forever; and I think
it may be truly inscribed on his monument that as a private gentleman
and as a public magistrate he was without fear and without reproach.

"This occasion cannot but remind us of other afflicting losses which
have recently befallen us. The present, indeed, has been a sad year for
the profession of the law. In a few short months it has been bereaved of
its brightest and greatest ornaments. Clay, Webster, and Sergeant have
gone to their immortal rest in quick succession. We had scarcely
returned from the grave of one of them till we were summoned to the
funeral of another. Like bright stars they have sunk below the horizon,
and have left the land in widespread gloom. This hall that knew them so
well shall know them no more. Their wisdom has no utterance now, and the
voice of their eloquence shall be heard here no more forever.

"This hall itself seems as though it was sensible of its loss, and
even these marble pillars seem to sympathize as they stand around us
like so many majestic mourners.

"But we will have consolation in the remembrance of these illustrious
men. Their _names_ will remain to us and be like a light kindled in the
sky to shine upon us and to guide our course. We may hope, too, that the
memory of them and their great examples will create a virtuous emulation
which may raise up men worthy to be their successors in the service of
their country, its constitution, and its laws.

"For this digression, and these allusions to Clay, Webster, and
Sergeant, I hope the occasion may be considered as a sufficient excuse,
and I will not trespass by another word, except only to move that these
resolutions in relation to Judge McKinley, when they shall have been
read by the clerk, may be entered on the records of this court."

JOHN M. HARNEY

John Milton Harney, the first of the Kentucky poets to win and retain
a wide reputation, a man with the divine afflatus, whose whole body of
song is slender but of real worth, was born near Georgetown, Delaware,
March 9, 1789. He was the second son of Major Thomas Harney, of
Revolutionary War fame, and the elder brother of General William S.
Harney, a hero of Cerro Gordo. When John Milton Harney was but two
years old, his family emigrated to Tennessee, and later removed to
Louisiana. He studied medicine and settled at Bardstown, Kentucky. In
1814 Dr. Harney married a daughter of Judge John Rowan, the early
Kentucky statesman; and her death four years later was such a shock
to her husband that he was compelled to abandon his practice, and seek
solace in travel and new scenes. Dr. Harney spent some time in
England, and on his return to America he settled at Savannah, Georgia.
He over-exerted himself at a disastrous fire in Savannah, which
resulted in a violent fever and ended in breaking his health. He
returned to Bardstown, Kentucky, became a convert to Roman
Catholicism, and in that place he died, January 15, 1825, when but
thirty-five years of age. At the age of twenty-three years, Dr. Harney
wrote _Crystalina, a Fairy Tale_, in six cantos, but his extreme
sensitiveness caused him to hold it in manuscript for four years, or
until 1816, when it was issued anonymously at New York. This work was
highly praised by Rufus W. Griswold, John Neal, and other well-known
critics, but the unfavorable criticism far outweighed the favorable
criticism, so the author held, and he published nothing more in book
form; and he did all in his power to suppress the edition of
_Crystalina_. William Davis Gallagher, poet and critic of a later time
in the West, went over Dr. Harney's manuscripts and from them rescued
his masterpiece, the exquisite _Echo and the Lover_. This Gallagher
published in his _Western Literary Journal_ for 1837--the first form
in which the public saw it. No Western poem has had a wider audience
than the _Echo_. It has been parodied in Europe and America many
times, and is the finest expression of Dr. Harney's genius. It is to
be regretted that no comprehensive account of the poet's life and
literary labors has come down to posterity. As a poet and as a man his
merits were of the truest sort, but a handful of facts, a suppressed
book, a lyric or so, are all that have been brought to the attention
of the literary world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T.
Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); _Blades o' Bluegrass_, by
Fannie P. Dickey (Louisville, 1892).

ECHO AND THE LOVER

[From _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, edited by W. T.
Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860)]

_Lover._ Echo! mysterious nymph, declare
Of what you're made and what you are--
_Echo._ "Air!"

_Lover._ 'Mid airy cliffs, and places high,
Sweet Echo! listening, love, you lie--
_Echo._ "You lie!"

_Lover._ You but resuscitate dead sounds--
Hark! how my voice revives, resounds!
_Echo._ "Zounds!"

_Lover._ I'll question you before I go--
Come, answer me more apropos!
_Echo._ "Poh! poh!"

_Lover._ Tell me, fair nymph, if e'er you saw
So sweet a girl as Phoebe Shaw!
_Echo._ "Pshaw!"

_Lover._ Say, what will win that frisking coney
Into the toils of matrimony!
_Echo._ "Money!"

_Lover._ Has Phoebe not a heavenly brow?
Is it not white as pearl--as snow?
_Echo._ "Ass, no!"

_Lover._ Her eyes! Was ever such a pair?
Are the stars brighter than they are?
_Echo._ "They are!"

_Lover._ Echo, you lie, but can't deceive me;
Her eyes eclipse the stars, believe me--
_Echo._ "Leave me!"

_Lover._ But come, you saucy, pert romancer,
Who is as fair as Phoebe? Answer.
_Echo._ "Ann, sir!"

THE WHIPPOWIL

[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

Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/39406