St. Charles Republican intelligencer. (St. Charles [Charles City], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1857-01-01
Epteunt Tetture.
For the st. Charles Republican Intellgenccr.
AMERICAN LITERATURE.
Extracts from an address delivered before
the 81. Charles Lyceum, Dec. 20, 1856.

!
| BY A. n. r. HnDRETH.
The subject of American Literature
is, and it should be, one of general in
tcrest. The patriot, the scholar, the
philanthropist, all are deeply, init
mately concerned in the progress
but especially in the character of q
nations literature. ...
The literature of America differs, in
many important respects, from that OF
any other country. Its rise and prog,
ress have been more rapid, and it has
had tocontend with obstacles, incident,
perhaps, to no other nation. Rising
superior, however, to all the disadvan-
tages consequent upon the infancy of
our GOvernment,-as we'll as to those
which were involved in the eventful
struggle for freedom,-it has proudly
come forth to claim an equality with
that of surrounding nations g.
1t requires no very labored investi-
cation to perceive how highly impor-
tant it is that America should have a
literature of her own, harmonizing, in
its character and tendency, with her
civil and political institutions. # .
Should we seek for information and
amusement in foreign literature, alone,
our feelings might be gradually es-
tranged, and we be led to adopt prin-
icples at variance with the genius of
our government. Imagination loves
to retrace the past +; and often, in her
vagaries, does she visit Greece, at the
period of that country's classic glory.
Under fancy's potent spell, we hear,
with admiration, the lofty strains of
Demosthenes, and listen with rapture
to the songs of her poets. Amid such
scenes, fancy rcvels in delight yet,
they are relinquished by the American,
for theme which, to him, possesses
deeper, more intense interest ;-one
which, from his earliest youth, has
been the object of heartfelt rcver-
ence. 1t is the history of his own
loved country!
What can awaken patriotism more
effectually, than the remembrance of
the toll, the self-denial and the moral
courage exercised by our fathers p
We may rear monuments to tell of
great men and glorious deeds but,
unsupported by history, they will be
reduced to the miserable condition Of
Egypt's pyramids which remain, in
deed, in gloomy grandeur but the
mantle of nbl;y,n,, ho, lon.. ,;noo &, II
en- upon those who caused their erec-
ton.
Let, then, history-the history of
our own country-occupy the first place
in American literature. While we
hail with delight the exhibition of ge-
MUS, and anticipate for each fond re-
ception, whether it appear in the gray
or dress of science, or the more allur-
ing garb of polite literature, still let
the historian receive the deepest graf
itudc-the warmest patronage, Of his
countrymcn.
Based on the foundations of history,
who can estimate the interest which
literature will have on our national
character? Numbcrless are the sour
ces to which the American scholar
may resort to enliven and cmbellish
his productions. From the shades of
diversity in national character-from
the devotion to liberty, which glows
in the bosom of Columbia's humblest
son from the mournful, yet interest
ing, study of a race too rapidly de-
parting from that soil of which their
fathers were once the happy propric-
tors, from these, and similar sources,
may cmanate, as from an almost mex
haustible fountain, streams that will
bcautify and enrich our nations liter
ature
If the influence of a scenery, exhib-
iting every diversity of character, is
calculated to awaken and call into ac-
ton the exercise of genius, then is
America doubly blcst. From the mai
esty of her thunder-toned cataracts to
the placid beauty of her Cedar from
the grandeur of her mountain scenery
to the wide extent of her prairie land.
scapes, poetry will find themes worthy
of herself, and romance may linger
and sport with scenes the description
of which will not tire the most fertile
Imagination. May we not say, indeed,
that the experiment has already been
most successfully tried Does not the
weary traveller find relief from the
monotony of Western prairie by re.
calling the scenes portrayed by Coop
Ell and Irving?
But while we dwell with enthusiasm
upon our privileges as Americans, let
us not forget that we have great faults
that moral evil pcrvades every class
of society. Let Columbia's sons cul.
tivate distinctive national literature,
as powerful aid in awakening and
cherishing pure and ardent love for
the liberty our fathers so dearly pur-
chased, and the virtues they exempli.
fed. Let us regard it as a sacred du'
ty to foster genius but, above all, let
us feel that it is one of the stronges,