Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-01-17
The Mound Builders.
BY L. VIRGINIA FRENCH.

The western wild
Spreads out before US, and her voice of might
Shakes the old wilderness. Alone it swells
v here tTopic bloom and gray corrosion strive
To crush the deep and restless murmurings
q OF hOary -headed ages. Dim and strange
The priest, the vestal and the dark Cazlque
Rise on the Teocas; and below
Fit the swart shadows Of the nameless tribes
That peopled Iximaya. Ruins all
Yet mighty in their eloquence.
Central America, with its devastated cities
and forest-covered temples; the valley of the
Mississippi, with gigantic mounds and tu-
null; the slopes of Ohio, Virginia and Ten
nessee, with their remains of ancient fortifi-
cations. their long hidden cemeteries and
relic holding caverns; all be-. indisputable
record OF this "New Worlds; mighty and
mysterious past. Who were the tenants of
those cities, who worshipped in the dim light
of those temples, who fought behind those
broken bulwarks, who lie crumbling back to
dust in those caves aud cemeteries? Science,
ingenuity. curiosity, have essayed in vain to
discover something of their names aud histo-
ries. Eloquent as are those ruins, full OF
deep lessons to the ''sons of men," crying
ever as with mighty voice from the depths
OF the wilderness. wailing as it were over
the buried and forgotten grandeurs of the
race who raised them, yet they give back
not even the faintest echo of the name OF
the "Eyssho." or people that are los" Not
a vestige of their language, not one mutilat-
ed page of their history, not even a half
whisper Of the names OF their eautifnl their
bravest. or their best; nothing but gray
fragments of once mighty faues, oak-grown
ruins Of buried cities, and century-eovered
tombs. Drowned drowned" forever b :
meath Times rushing river, with only here
and there the Summit of some lofty mound,
the wall of some old ruined city lifting mp
above the waves. 10 tell us that they were
nd ind ~, 81.
lus of an undeVelOped mystery, goes reach
ing back, buck into the unknown, searching
for the old mound builders of that forgotten
era, sinking at last in blanknrss and black
ness like the daring thoughts which we S nd
forth from time to time seeking to compre-
bend eternity or TO iatbnm iAfnitude. In
vain our qGesiioniDgs. In vain We cry '',oho
and lrbdt ere these mound builders? Bore
ihs,y the pale forehead OF the Caucasian, thu
red front OF the Indian. or the dusky brow
of the Monaghan? We're they The trepie-
hearted denIz' Ms of the spice belts of bloOrn
and beauty that grid tEe Equator? We're
they a remnant of the ''lpst Tubes" of Gods
chosen people? or We're they the antique
mould of the old Morse heroes? How lived
how loved, how died. thev? But the old
green mounds in sunny wales, or by The river
shore, answer not-nOt murmur comes up
to us OF their builders or their buried.
Turn We then from those Titanic tombs of
the lost, the mound builders of a later aud
lovelier day. To the high-hearted and stroag-
handed heroes who have baided with their
own great deeds lar nobier monumental
mounds han those which grace Yirginia's
wales. or stand, long silent seniin els on Mis-
sIssippi's shores. To those who have reared
for themselves monuments visible from every
portion of our broad land-whose heroic d :
volion. whose all embracing charity. or y hose
deep-soul. d nationality has iixeI their m mo-
rIes like firm waich towers even upon The
shifting sands of Time. To our revolutionary
sires, whose mounds were built of living
hearts, and cemented with fresh, flowing
blood. To men ..born with the lions meitie
and the oceans calm" whose whole lives
have been monumental, 50 that even the
homes where they once dwet loom up like
Titanic mounds, builded SO as to cast their
shadow into every American hearf: mounds
like Mount Vernon and Monticello. aud
Marshfield; ike Sunnyside, aud the Hermi-
tage, ami As!and. the marble mausoieum
OF Adrian may have been fitting receptacle
for imperial ashes. yet we revere with
deeper devotion the small snow mound that
shrouds the dust of Franklin, and the green
turf that lies upon the heart OF Kane, DER
Swallowed as they are with the insignia of an
immortal fame. Grace Darling and Flora
Mcdonald, each by one brave act, erected for
herself a memorial purer and brighter far
than Napoleon piled through long years and
with hecaiombs of men. Herndsn, who went
down into the heart of the Atlantic, in that
one hour built himself monument. ~ hich no
ocean can oyerwheim, and which shall exist
when "there shall be no more sea. y
The man who could give peaye-unwayer-
ing, ali-satisfying peace TO our Republic at
this jancture, would build up IA that peace
his own immortal monument. Have We
among us the man to ioiE Have we the
dominant spirit who shall dare, amid conten-
ding factions, to lit mp his voice and swear
by the blood Of our dead heroes, las did De-