The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-03-25
Dixie's Land.
The following fanciful and ingenious inter-
probation of "Dixie'' is sent us by lazy cor
respondent:
For the Dispatch.1

The following fanciful and ingenious inter
probation of "Dixie'' is sent us by a lady cor
respondent:
[For the Dispatch.1
THg ENIGMA SOLVED.
| "The owner of the copy right of Dixie's
Land has realized -, by the sale OF that
| song" This item of intelligence, which has
gone the rounds of the newspapers, excited
| some surprise in the minds of those who sim
! ply consider Dixies Land II song like other
| songs. ''The air is pretty enough, they say,
"but the words-why, they are perfectly alb
surdi What can have given it such sale %
! DO you not know, questioner, THAT DlXles
| Land has become the "National Anthem OF
! Secession ~ That it is called for in Southern
| Theatres, and received with cheers ana APP
plause, while Hail Columbia and the Star
| Spangled Banner are Kissed down? What
| though it was composed by Northern man
| Did not Baptste Lulli compose "God save
! the King" in honor of Louis the Fourteenth,
| and was not that splendid Anthem stolen,
! re-arranged, and anglocised for the gloritica-
ton of Great George, our King, by Han
! del Why Yankee Doodle itself was writ
| ten, air and words, by a surgeon in the British
| army, during the Revolution, to express his
| supreme contempt for the Americans. But
| the Yankees captured the tune and aggravated
! the modification of their bafed oppressors
/ by playing it to them-reminding them that
| their defeat was sustained at the hands OF an
| enemy whom they had contemptuously de
i rded. Dixies Land, then, belongs to the
| South by right of seizure, as do the forts, the
| arsenals. the minis taken from the General
| Government by the seeding States.
And the words of that song. With feelings
! of unaffected hesitation and genuine reverence
do l approach the discussion of this delicate
! subject i crave the earnest attention of all
true Southeners to the great discovery am
about to make public That poem, lightly de-
nounced as ''meaningless" and absurd" by
unimaginative Submissionists and taun ting
Republicans-that poem is an categorical
| prophecy, queIing suspicion of its true char
acter by apparent Htera1ness, but in reality
profound, exact and awe-inspiring the mys-
terious oracles of ancient SYPHILIS, the wonderful
! second sight revelations OF Thomas the
| Rhymer and other Caledonian seers, or the
| still more amazing predictions Of Merlin
which, delivered in King Arthur's time, are
| being even now fulfilled in England.
do not speak unadvisedly or without be-
| ing able to bring ample proof of the truth of
my assertion. very cursory examination
of the song itself will be sufficient convince
any appropriated N ind OF its categorical shape;
and when it is considered that the words
were composed more than a year ago, when
the events to which it evidently refers
were yet in the womb of the future, and the
man, whose star has now risen triumphantly
above the political horizon, had scarcely been
heard of beyond his own narrow circle, its
| prophetic character will appear undeniable.
! To begin the analysis The first verse sim
! ply, but forcibly, recalls to the mind of
! Southerner a foreign shore, " his own his
| native land" where his chiIdhood's happy
| days were spent; where the endearing ties of
memory and association are still remembered
! and then in the spirit of Allan Cunning
| ham well known lines
| It's hamc, hame, hame that fain would be
Hame, hame, hame, in my ain countrie;'''
| the chorus bursts forth with a passionate
! wish to return to this beloved motherland
! an earnest resolve to live and die in her bo-
| SOM This first verse is literal, and serves a
a further mask to the obscuritios which fol-
! low.
| Now begins the allegory:
"Old mistress married Will, the Weaver,
| William he was gay deceiver-
| Look away-look away, look away,
| Dixie Land ~
Here is wisdom. The igurative old mis-
tress' is Columbia, no longer, alas q happy
| land, who, with blind confidence, places her
| fate in the hands of-of whom Who is the
second metaphorcal parsonage a.? No other
than Abraham Lincoln, President of the Uni
| ted States. The significant title, Weaver"
has been, from time immemorial, applied TO
| spiders, and from them transferred TO politi-
| clans" weavers" of cunning plots.
The name, William, is added partly for the
| sake of ALTERATION, and partly las in Scriptu-
r;tl prophecies dynas ties are mentioned as sin
gle kings,) to unite into one person, influenced
| by the same motives, resolved to carry out
tie same line of conduct, the President and
given name, singularly enough it really is, and
in secondary sense, the whole Republican
| party is implied by that phrase.
This artful schemer's moral character is
then summed up in one comprehensive phrase,
| which needs no comment; and the Southland
is ted to turn away her eyes from the
sad spectacle of misplaced contidence-of At
| lection doomed to base betrayal Next fol-
lows a terse description of the tierceness Of
his coun tenance-the outward sign of fero-
cious and pitiless disposition.
| ''This face sharp" &c.
The dark threats of coming storm-the warn
ings of approaching danger, which alarm all
around her, are unnoticed, unfeared by the in
fatuated Columbia. And again the chorus
| peals out that longing patriotic cry-again
avows that bold determination to stand by our
affairs and our fires-to die, if fate wills it, for
our sunny land.
Sudden and awful is Columbia's awakening
| from her dream of peace and repose, when she
| is irrevocably in the power of her terrible
master, whose very smile is as dreadful as the
fash of a cannon. Aye! look away hapless
| children of doomed mother In her is no
help! Protect yourselvesi Raise your own
banner! Keep your oft-reiterated VOW TO
stand fast by your laws and liberties
And then comes the catastrophe. Cold and
pale, at last, lies the noble form of Columbia,
victim of an ill-assorted union, of infatuated
trust in designing politicians. Sadly to the
sky still rises the wailing refrain
"L0Ok away'-iOOk awssy Az l. away,
But for us who survive, better days are
dawning. Secessia, benignant goddess smiles
| on cur standard and stretches her protecting
egis over US In the concluding couplet of
the lay with which she has inspired her
chosen bard, for he ''buiided better than he
knew" and but dimly unders TODD the vast i'm
port OF his verses she assumes the pro tec-
ton of the South not only of the States who
first invoked her aid but of all others who
may join them. A mistress of different
stamp from Columbia will this new protec-
tress be. No divided counsels, no clashing in
terests mark her regime. Her cool headed
statesmen willlegislate with dignitied wisdom
in the halls of her Capitol. Her soldiers,
whose fame is above suspicion, and her saga
cous and experienced mill tary engineers, will
guard her well-fortitied coasts. Where is the
doomed foe who shall dare attack them?
Now, here's health to the next old Missus
And to all the gals that want to kiss Us -
Virginia Kentucky Tennessee Will you
| not join your sisters Do you not yearn to be-
stow upon them an embrace of sisterly love
Will you not fly from the baleful sway of
| William the Weaver, and take refuge in Sc
cessna 8 open arms!
Gin Dixie's Land take up your stand,
To live and die in Dixie"
Can any one now fail to see that in the
verses of this deseryedly popular song, an
epitome is given of the events which since
| last November, have shaken this land The
| election OF Lincoln, the decay and dismem
berlnent of the United States the threats of
| civil war, and the rise of a new power in the
| South, are all foretod, and even an in vitation
10 join this nascent empire extended to the
surrounding States /! The most ske ptical must
at least confess that these verses contain such
an extraordinary series of condolences AS was
never before heaped together by the hand OF
chance.
There are those, we are told, In Secess )
own domain-some even in the eloa uen
Preston's gallant little State-who dou bit Sa-
cessia's infallibility, and secretly acknow-
ledge the Weayer's right to rule over them,
though public opinion ohliges them to wrap
their views in such q mantle of dubiosity as
this adapted epigram expresses:
tsGod bless our President the Snpthss aoFaraar