Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1847-02-19
From the National Era.
Raniolphsof Roanoke.

Oh, Mother Earth upon thy lap
Thy weary ones receiving,
And DER them, silent as dream,
Thy grassy mantle weaving;
Fold softly in thy long embrace
That heart 50 worn and broken,
And cool its pulse OF fire beneath
Tsy sha lows old ami onkcn.
Shu, on, from him the bitter word
And serpen, hiss OF scorning.
Nor let the storms OF yesterday
Disturb his quiet morning;
Breathe over him forgetiulness
Ota save deeds OF kindness,
And, save to smiles OF grateful eyes,
Press down his lids in blindness.
There, where with living ear and eye
He heard Potomac's flowing,
And, throu gh his tall ancestral trees,
Saw Autu.nis sunset glowing.
He sleeps--stlll looking to the West,
Beneath the dark wood shadow,
As if he still would see the sun
Sink down on wave and meadow.
Bard, Sage, and Tribune in himself
Allmools OF mind contrasting,
The tenderest wall Of human woe,
The scorn like lightning blasting,
The pathos which from rival eyes
Unwilling tears could summon;
Ihe singing taunt, inc merry ouisl
Ofhatred scarcely human!
Mirth, sparkling like diamond, showed,
From lips OF life long Sadness.
Clear picturng ofmajestic thought
Upon ground otmadness;
And over all Romance and Song
A classic beauty throwing;
And laurecd Clio at INSIDE
Her storied pages showing
All parties feared him, each in turn
Behold its schemes disjointed,
As right or left his fatal glance
Aud spectral finger pointed;
Sworn toe of Can't he snote II down
With trcnchant wit unsparlng,
And, mocking rent with ruthless hand
the robe Pretence was wearing.
Too honest or too proud to feign
A love be never cherished.
Beyond Virginas border line
Ais patriotism pershed:
While others hailed in distant skies
Our Eagles dusky pinion,
He only saw the mountain bird
Stoop DER his Old Dominion
Still through each change Of fortune strange,
Racked nerve, and brain all burning,
His loving faith in molher-land
Knew never shade oiturning;
BY Britain's lakes. by Neva's wave,
Whatever sky was Ger him,
lie heard her rivers rushing sound,
Her blue peaks rose before him.
Heheld his slaves yet made withal
No false and vain pretences,
Nor paid lying priest TO seek
For Scriptural dciences.
His harshest words OF proud rehukc,
His bittcrest taunt and scorning,
Felliire like on the Norlhern brow
That bent to him in iawning.
He held his slaves yet kept the while
His reverence for the Human;
In the dark vassals OF his will
He saw but Man and Woman.
No, hunter OF Gods outraged poor
His Roanoke valley entered;
No trader in the souls OF men
Across his threshold vcniured.'
And when the old and wearied man
Laid down for his last sleeping,
And at his side, slave no more,
His brother man stood weeping
His latest thought, his latest breath,
To Freedoms duty giving,
With failing tongue and trembling hand
The dying best the living.
Oh, never bore his ancient State
A truer son or Drawer.
None trampling with calmer scorn
On foreign hate or favor:
He knew her faults, yet never stopped
His proud and manly feeling
To poor excuses OF the wrong
OfmeannesS or conceallnB.
But none beheld with clearer eye
The plague spot DER her spreading,
None heard more sure the steps OF Doom
Along her future treading.
For her as for himself he spake,
When, his gauut frame upbraclng.
III. traced with dying hand "REMoRsE"t
And persisted IN the tracing.
As from the grave where Henry sleeps,
From Nernon's weeping willow,
And from the grassy pail which hides
The sage OF Monticello,
So from the leaf strown burial stone
OF Randoph's lowly dwelling,
Virginia DER thy land otslaves
A warning voice is swelling.
And bark from thy deserted fields
Are sadder warnings spoken,
From quench hearths, where thy eXiled so
Their household gods have broken.
The Curse is on thee--wolves Tor men,
Aad brars for con-sheaves giving!
OH more than all thy dead renown
Were now one hero living.
Randolph had hearty hatred of slave traders
Is said treated some of them quite roughly who
:, 1 o., ,b,.nau his .'c hattrls ne rsDual "