The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-02
NATIONAL WAR SONGS.

AS speech and gesture express the or.
binary emotions Of man in the ordinary
affairs Of life, so poetry and song are the
expressions Of an .overwrought nervous
system or of a soul stirred to its depths.
Mans master passions are love and
patriotism Eacha seeks expression in
musical rhyme When the soul abandons
itself, when selishness disappears, when
the individual becomes subordinate to a
great principle or comes as a voluntary
sacrifice to the altar of his country or
race, then the soul bursts into song.
When a nation thrills with the exuIta-
ton of patriotism, when the multitude
feels as one man the impulse to great
end; when fortunes and lives are poured
out without stint for a cause, then the
national songs burst forth in a night, and
go ringing down the ages, ever new, ever
beautiful, because they are the outpour-
ings of the enrapt soul of a people.
Who ever reads the ''Marseines" or
'fWacht am Rheind without feeling the
blood flow with renewed vigor; and when
sung to the national music, born with
the songs, who does not feel the stirring
of the French revolution or the impulse
to risk life to guard the fatherland?
These songs are struck off when the
national mind is atEa white. heat. The
whole people recognize in them their own
thoughts and feelings The rhythm is the
measure of the souls pulsations. Like
bugle call, they move the mass as one
man. .s,..+
The first shotn that was fred on Fort
Sumter in 1861 divided the nation as with
az compass. There was no compromise
the cleavage was clear. The breast of
the Southerner swelled with the same
feelings that animated the heart of his
Northern brotherAthe highest patriotism
in both eases. On one side it was
case Of outraged liberty; on the other
desire for the preservation of national
integrity with all the gIories of the ma
TONS past
The people of the South were fighting
for what they believed to be personal
and political rights, for the perpetuation
of a system dear to their hearts. a sys-
tenn so. interviewer. with their social life
that it's destruction meant destruction
to all that was dear in family and
society.
The North sought first to preserve the
great republic, and then to sweep from
its confines the institution that had held
a race in bondage. In the war songs of
the two people we find a reflection Of
the spirit of the contention.
Fiery. impetuous, chlvalric, came the
outburst from the South, my Mary
land" Mr.. James R. Randall, a native
of Baltimore, then teacher of English
literature in a college of Louisiana. was
the author. twas dashed off one even
ing after hearing Of the passing of fed
era1 troops through. his native city, en-
route to washiHgtons It was set to suit
able music and at once became the ma
tional song OF the Confederacy.
It epitomized the Spirit of the South.
MY MARYLAND.
The -despots heel is pm thy shore,
Maryland
His torch is tGtllg temple door,
Marylandt
Avenge the patrhoticI gore
That f1ecked the streets of Baltimore,
And be the battle queen of yore,
Maryland. my Maryland
Hank to an exiled sons appeal,
Mary1andi
My mother state to thee kneel,
Marylandi
For life and death, for woe or veal,
Thy peerless chivalry reveal.
And grid thy beauLeols limbs with steel,
Maryland. my Maryland
Come, for thy shield is bright and strong.