Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1871-11-29
CLEARFlELD, PA.
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.


I
The western world in heathen darkness lay.
Tie God of nature horo had intertwined
The graudest features Of our globe designed.
Huge mountain systems rose in towering might,
with peaks iumned by volcanic light
Unnumbered rivers through the tranquil land,
Flowed onward toward the distant, stormy strand
Great cataracts poured down with thunderous
sound,
And cavorns yawned for miles beneath the ground
Fresh water lakes spread out among the trees,
With all the seeming of vast inland seas
Rude, savage tribes possessed the vast domains
OF forest wids and blooming prairie plains.
But cultivated minds Of early times,
Knew nothing OF these isolated cimes.
The period of the Aborigines
Is yeiled in deep, unathomod mysteries.
No written records Of their acts appear
No annals Of the nations buried here.
But moldering cities times dim deeds recall
Where tottering turrets crushed aud orumbling
fall.
From where the famous Newport tower is found,
To where Cholula's pyramids abound,
Remains Of carthcrn forts are left to show
That warlike nations aourishcd long ago;
And countless mounds to these late ages tell
OF those who in these regions used to dwell,
When their progenitors set out TO roam
From mankind's common, Asiato home.
The straits Of Behrng may have been the way,
That led them safely % America.
The sites where yestiges are traced
Till ruder tribes from northern countries poured
Demolishing what never was restored.
Thus crushed beneath fierce, barbaric might,
The continent reapsed in hopeless night
Or separate quite, from eastern nations riyon,
Their origin may be direct from Heaven.
But theories transmit TO us alone,
What truthful history has never shown.
East Of the Mississippis turbid stream,
Apl NJ VIII WA rtq m
With habits fixed, unaltcrablc, vile,
Or strangely mixed with reetitude and guile,
| Divided into tribes and rowing round,
Eight Indian families the white men found.
The Algonquin possessed a vast extent
OF this great section Of the continent.
The Huron, IrOquos and Cherokee,
Mobilian, Matches, Sioux and fierce Uchco,
With the Catawbas, formed the other bands
Who occupied our vide Columbian lands.
As ornaments they belts Of wampum wore,
Which served as currency the country Ger.
| They scaped their enemies with savage glee
Their women led life Of slavery.
/ With bark Of trees they huts or wgwams made,
And war aud hunting formed their leading trade
The fIHna aud the fara here unfurled,
Are different from those in the eastern world
| New genera and species far aud wide,
/ Into untold varieties divide;
And everywhere from Natures hand outpours
| The most prolific and abundant stores.
The Europeans long hal sought way,
By sea alone, to distant India.
Columbus aimed this wished for route to gain,
BY boldly crossing DER the western main.
For eighteen years at many courts he tried
To have essentials for bis plan suppliedj
When Isabella Of the Spanish throne,
Came nobly forward To his aid alone
| With three small vessels and but ninety men,
| He on his daring project started then.
| About FIVE weeks had slowly circled round,
When with auccess his fondost hopes were crowned
October twelfth in fourteen nineiy-two,
The isle Of Guanshani came in view.
| How welcome To this ocean daring band,
Must now have been the welcome cry of land
They knew not that ten thousand miles and more
Still stretched between them and the Indian shore
Three other voyages Columbus made,
| And gained q fame which time can never fade.
lie gave a new world to the human race,
And II became his final resting place.
His glory and his wrongs are widely known,
Through all the realms Of every zone.
| The Northmon many centuries before,
| Had sailed the northern regions to explore,
And roved the sterile ice-bound country Ger
From Greenlands snow clad hills to Labrador,
And colonies were planted on rs shore,
According to the ancient Runic lorei
But they had been abandoned long ago,
| As regions Of eternal frost and snow,
When voyagers from southern Europe tried
To cross Atlantic's ever restless tide.
America was quickly seized upon,
! Aud many settlements were soon begun,
BY Spain, which started FAR in the advance.
And England, HollSnd. Portugal aud France
Vespucci came in quest Of fame and pelf
| And had II named In honor Of himself.
Balloon with his comrades rude and free,
FIRST visited the great Pacific sea.
Ponce do Leon discovered blooming wilds,
Illumined by tho southern summer smilesi
And rowing all their gorgeous tangler round,
The Fount Of Youth be sought-but never found
The two Cabats came over to explore
The northern section Of the eastern shore.
Then VeTrazani and his hardy crew,
And Cartier, came to make discoveries too.
De Soto in the conquest his foes,
Fist reached the line whore Mississippi flows,
Aud Gasnold seeking Massachusetts, shore,
The route condensed a thousand leagues or NOR
Sir Walter Raleigh, fayorite of Queen Bess,
Essayed colony without success.
A century passed. as history relates,
With none to settle the United States.
But by and by, with energy inspired,
Two noted companies the land acquired
And In the progress Of succeeding years,
Had founded many homes Of pioneers.
within the nations bounds as they are traced
To-day, the following colonies we're placed
In earlier times, 10 permanent array:
The first, st. Augustine 10 Florida,
I
Succeeded by the English at jamestown.
81. Marys was established iu the South
New Amsterdam quite near the Iiudson's mouth.
The Maynower's pcrsocutcd Pilgrim flock
OF exilcs, landed here on Plymouth rock
And Roger Williams, soon exilod from thence,
Near Nanaennsett founded Providence.
This is the sacred spot where first we find
Religious Tolerance TO mankind; s.|H.
Whore Church aud State were In no way combined
But every one could think as he inclined,
with the inalionable right assigned
To worship God according to bis mind.
In Christian rectitude was settled then
BY deeds Of reacc, the land Of William Penn.
The story Of his government affords
Unbroken faith with all the Indian hordes
James Oglothorpe to Georgia led the way,
And thus the States were formed in fair array
BY emigration from the distant East
The population rapidly increased.
with Gre aud sword and toll surrounding them,
They dared the pcrils Of these wilds to stem.
The natives tribes, to fury Oft cnraged,
Against the colonists In war engaged.
But freemen, In true courage uneNcclled,
They persayored ill all their foes were qnelled.
The French and Indian conno here we greet,
with years Of crime and misery repeto,
Where Washington in battle first We meet,
And Braddook had his terrible defeat
Where western settlers countless wrongs endured
And Canada the British King secured.
But troubles wcighuor thhn lhe lhuRn wars, +.
Were doomed to break out on our devoted shoro
, For many years the king and Parliament
Had aimed to tax us without our consent;
And hireing troops were moved across the wave
To help reduce rs 10 a state Of slaves.
Twas then the Boston Massacre occurred
The Revelation was not long deferred.
on using nothing wrongly taxed intent,
Some fifty men disguised rs Indians vent
And into Boston llarbor thew the tea,
I A - ~ a.I NaA mi 10.
The military movements were begun
Upon The crimson field Of Lexington
And followed up with energy and skiil,
In the far famed defence Of Bunkcrs liilli
which nuubcrless heroic deeds comprised
And wherc brave wanen's life was sacrificed.
Ticondcrnga daring Allen gained
Crown Point by him soon after wns obtained.
An III. starred expedition moved away,
To meet the foe IN distant Canadai
. A..- ll.1 L. LIZ IuLl. l-nnnNlAln.