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Title
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Our Country
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First Line
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MY COUNTRY! - waked by that endearing name
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Bibliographic Citation
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Burleigh, William Henry. Our Country; Its Dangers and Its Destiny: A Desultory Poem. Pronounced Before the Allegheny Literary Society at its Semi-Annual Celebration, September 2, 1841. Allegheny, PA: Allegheny Literary Society, 1841, 7-36.
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An excerpt was published in Vermont Telegraph (Brandon, Vermont), April 13, 1842, p. 4
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Date
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1841
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Period
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Middle
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Subject
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Abolition
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Patriotism
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American Revolution
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Colonizationism
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Comments
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This is a long poem - almost 40 pages of 22-30 lines each. Therefore, this comment section will include footnote references keyed to text. Indication will be given if these are in the original, or added by The Burleigh Team in the 21st century.
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Preface by William H. Burleigh: (in original; full transcription)
I am by no means certain that the following Poem should ever have been permitted to see the light, at least in its present form. side from the request of the respectable Association before which it was originally delivered, the principal reason that induces me to publish it is, my desire to dedicate it to a highly valued friend and school-mate, whose early promise of usefulness and distinction (and it was great) has been blighted by long, severe, and, my fears suggest, hopeless sickness. Even this reason, potent as it is, would not avail with me, could I entertain any rational expectation of soon presenting for his acceptance a more elaborate and worthier work; but, inclination aside, the nature of my every day duties is such as to render it morally certain that I shall give no new volume to the public for many years—probably never.
For the fate of this thin pamphlet, I have neither anxiety nor apprehension. Let the critics do to it as seeemeth good in their sight. It is lawful game for them—and dull must that reviwer be, and singularly free from opinions upon controverted questions, who cannot find in its pages something to condemn. That there is some poetry in it, prejudice alone will deny—that many of its passages are little better than unmitigated prose, the candid will unhesitatingly admit. It was written hurriedly, at intervals snatched from more pressing engagements; and the limited time allowed for its completion precluded the possibility of revision. So much I say in justice to myself, not in deprecation of any severity of criticism; and with this brief explanation of the circumstances under which the Poem was written, and of the motive which induces me to publish it, I leave it to its fate—to sink or swim, according as the principle of life or death within it may prevail. - Pittsburgh, September 1841
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"the bold eloquence of Otis' tongue" refers to Faneuil Hall in Boston (in original)
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"that—thenceforth to Freedom consecrate—/Where the stern fathers of the Nation sate" refers to Independence Hall in Philadelphia (in original)
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"their deathless Testament" refers to the Declaration of Independence (in original)
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Note 2 concerns this pair of lines:
"Of robbing colonists, who, thieves at home/
Learned Christian ethics in the salt sea's foam"
To which Burleigh comments in the longest note "Of the free colored population of this country, the official organ of the American Colonization Society says—"Averse to labor, with no incentives to industry, or motives to respect, they maintain a precarious existence by petty thefts and plunder;" and much more of the same amiable import—for instance, that they "are a greater nuisance than even slaves themselves"—"the most vicious class of our population"—"a vile excrescence upon society"—"a curse and contagion wherever they reside"—"the most depraved beings upon earth"—"scarcely reached in their debasement by heavenly light"—Vide African Repository, passim. Yet we are gravely assured by the periodicals, officers and agents of this Society, that by expatriating this hopeful class of our citizens to Africa, we shall contribute to the evangelization of a continent, besides performing, incidentally, an amount of good beyond the power of knowledge to compute—and, I may add, of credulity to believe. But, as I am not called upon to reconcile the incongruity between the agencies employed and the end proposed by our American expatriationists, nor to show how admirably qualified for missionary operations in Africa a horde of miserable, degraded, ignorant thieves must necessarily be, I have adapted my verse to what seems to be colonization theology, and, by giving the poor emigrants a chance to learn "Christian ethics in the salt sea's foam," have made a kind of salt-water Christians of them; who will be competent, at least, to array themselves under the banners of Missionary Brown, and, if they cannot convert the hearts of the natives, they can "pepper their hams with buckshot."—"Ethiopia shall stretch our her hands unto God," (we are told) through the instrumentality of these colonized missionaries; and so she does—but it is in agonizing supplication for deliverance from such "religious teachers,"—save the mark!—whose tender mercies are cruelty.
But I forbear. A full exposition of the absurdities, to use no harsher epithet, involved in Colonizationism, would require a volume, and cannot, of course, be compressed within the limits of a note."
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Next note of Burleigh's corresponds to the section on Prussia
"How the Common School System of Education which has been so successfully adopted and pursued in Prussia, may be regarded by philanthropists and statesmen generally, I cannot presume to decide; but to me it conveys the assurance that it will ultimately and inevitably work ot the political regeneration of that interesting empire. Education, diffused through the mass of the population, cannot co-exist with any form of tyranny. Prussia may long continue a monarchy in name, but all the essentials of republicanism must be hers before the revolutions of many years. It requires no prescience to see this, for the most obvious causes are in operation for the production of such a policy."
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Burleigh's Fourth Note refers to "Capricious France":
"If the accounts of recent travellers are to be relied on, the French character as undergone a radical change within a few years. They assert that the flippancy and volatilty which formerly characterued that people, have given place to staidness of deeanor, deep thought, and a settled sobriety of character. To some extent, this may be true. It would seem that the French had had enough within a few years to sober them; but still, I am persuaded that, upon the whole, the text does no injustice to the nation, as such."
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Rating
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★★★
William Henry Burleigh
