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 overweight nervous
system or of a soul stirred to it's depths.
Mans master passions are love and
patriotism. Each. seeks expression in
musical rhyme When the soul abandons
itself, when selfishness 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 nation thrills with the exuta-
feels as one man the impulse to great
end; when fortunes and lives are poured
out without stint for cause, then the
national songs burst forth in a night, and
beautiful, because they are the outpour-
ings of the enrapt soul of a people.
Who ever reads the ''Marseiles" or
'fWacht am Rhein'' 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 alta 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. r.s
The first shot that was fred on Fort
Sumter in 1861 divided the nation as with
a. 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 brother-the highest patriotism
in both cases On one side it was a
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 its 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 reflection Of
the spirit of the contention.
! Fiery. impetuous, chivalric, came the
outburst from the South, my Mary
/ land" Mr.. James / R. Randall, a native
! of Baltimore, then a teacher of English
! literature in a college of Louisiana, was
/ the author. It-was dashed off one even
ing after hearing Of the passing of fed
! eral troops through. his native city, en-
route to washington. It was set to suit
able music and at once became the ma
! tional song of the Confederacy.
It epitonlized the spirit of the South.
MY MARYLAND.
The -despots heel is pm thy shore,
Marylandt
His torch is atthy temple door,
Maryland!
Avenge the patrdoticl gore
That fiecked the. streets of Baltimore,
| And be the battle queen of yore,
Maryland my MeryIandi
Hank to an exiled sons appeal
Marylandi
! NV mother state to thee I kneel,
Marylandi
For life and death, for woe or veal
1'hy. peerless chivalry- reveal,
And gird thy beauteous limbs with STEEL
Maryland. my Maryland!
Come. for thy shield is bright and strong,
!