Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-03-26
HAVE YOU BEEN TRUE AMERICANS
On the One Hundredth Anniversary
the Death OF Washington.
BY HENRY CLAY FAIRMAN.

About Gods hidden business so dream
The spirits Of great human Masters come
At intervals to mark on earth the fate
OF seeds they scattered when they dwelt with
men.
The nineteenth century is near its end.
When sank the eighteenth in the Western skies
Passed also from our view Columbia's Sun,
Not darkness leaving but roseate glow
Like that which fingers long in Arctic skies.
Great Washington, the hundredth year draws
nigh!
Thy shade. ev'n now. on deathless pinions
borne
Like arrow piercing the abyss Of space
My vision catches, speeding for this globe
Timing its fight to end in ninety-nine-
TO view the temple whose foundations Thou
And thy immortal comrades firmly fixed,
And did to human freedom dedicate.
Have ye my countrymen III order set
Your house to greet the visitor august?
Or have We cause. like Judas at the feast.
q To turn your faces from the Masters eye?
He when selfigovernment in peril stood,
Cast life ambition. fortune to the winds
And led our feeble colonies to face
A sceptre feared and cOurted by the world.
The pregnant hinges of the knee. that thrift
Might follow fawning." Liberal fortune his
The safe and mighty course to kngward lay.
But. Heaven be praised, he was not temptable!
And, with the stOutest heart that ever throb-
bed
In warrior breast, through seven awful years
He led the patriots safely to the mount
Wherein they laid the cornerstone of this
Our house, the most unique of all the times.
And while the wondering nations gazed in
awe,
Pledged to the world that here should be full
The hopes deferred of tempest-tossed man
kind
Which vow to emphasize, the god-like chief
!saus prototype, sans prospect of successor
'Vlroned by crowns at every compassionate,
Loftily scorning his ethiopian dream"
And tempting him the swaddled babe to STAY,
Which. trembling, covered in his Ajax arms
With sacrifice of self unparalleled.
ThrIce-Offered power immovably refused,
And thenceforth at his rural hearthstone
dwelt,
/ majesty surprising that OF Kings,
Have We been true Americans? Dare We face
Tn unswerving though invisible eye, of him
Whose love of country lowered over love of
seif%
Midst youf aiu billions and the strife for gold,
Forgotten have We his address FAREWELL"
Or, joying in your bloodbOught liberties.
Have We beside your happy freSides read
TO sons and daughters still with kindling eye,
And 'raptured tone, those wisdom-jewelled
wordso
Search now your hearts, and answer! Have
ye kept
The balance 'twix, the States and Federal
powers?
Or have We slept whilst under forms OF law
The organism central hath usurped
The sacred rights OF government self-local:
Or, fired and callouSed by the frenzied zeal
OF party spirit, or tracking party peif
Like very dogs of faction, overlooked
That public office is public truSt?"
Or checked by modesty, or drugged by ease,
Bass cOyards skulking in the army's rear,
Your country have We lent to goddess men,
Who greedy for today's emolument,
Their power law-making OF judicial. seh,
While youth upgrowing asks with skeptic
scorh.
rs TINS the ITllltass OF tAe + dtHerS sowing
To charge, far be it from tins humble pen;
But if indeed It's true, as men aver
Monopoly the vampire hath our Threats,
BE of good Cheer" he hath Otyet our blood
The early Fathers did not strive in vain;
The ballot sure is all-sufflcient, but
The spirit of the ''embattled farmers" lives
And burns in scions scattered DER this land.
The gasatest of NirginianS since the First,
Faced God prQeiHial.pg for his watchword
"DUTy,'''
And Southern men, when Union plainly calls,
VIII crowd TO die Or conquer by that sign"
In nations lives what are o hundred years?
Yet is this Nation but a beardless youth,
Treading a path beset by cunning knayes,
And storing wisdom from experience gained.
IT'S true that in the governments of old
Plutocracy first ruled, and then destroyed,
But, claimed 1.-THE people" in those times no
rights.
Democracy had scarce been born in dreams.
Sweet u tins liyir of selfgovernment;
More than century maze this people sucked
Its tonic strength into their puisang veins,
And not the wealth of all the earth combined
Gan 11tufn thp dial bacl,D to CspsariSm