USA > Maryland > Biographical sketches of distinguished Marylanders > Part 16
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" You have seen them propose to a succession of Eng- lish ministers, as inducements to its relinquishment, expedients and equivalents of infinitely greater value to England than the usage, whilst they were innocent in themselves and respectful to us. You have seen these temperate overtures haughtily repelled, until the other
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noxious pretensions of Great Britain, grown in the in- terim to a gigantic size, ranged themselves by the side of this, and left no alternative but war or infamy.
" We are at war accordingly, and the single question is. whether you will fly like cowards from the sacred ground which the government has been compelled to take, or whether you will prove by your actions that you are de- scended from the loins of men who reared the edifice of American liberty, in the midst of such a storm as you have never felt.
"As the war was forced upon us by a long series of un- exampled aggressions, it would be absolute madness to doubt that Peace will receive a cordial welcome, if she returns without ignominy in her train, and with security in her hand. The destinies of America are commercial, and her true policy is peace; but the substance of peace had, long before we were roused to a tardy resistance, been denied to us by the ministry of England ; and the shadow which had been left to mock our hopes and to delude our imaginations, resembled too much the frown- ing spectre of war to deceive any body. Every sea had witnessed, and continued to witness, the systematic per- secution of our trade and the unrelenting oppression of our people. The ocean had ceased to be the safe high- way of the neutral world; and our citizens traversed it with all the fears of a benighted-traveler, who trembles along a road beset with banditti, or infested by the beasts of the forest. The Government, thus urged and goaded, drew the sword with a visible reluctance, and true to the pacific policy which kept it so long in the scabbard, will sheathe it again when Great Britain shall consult her own interest by consenting to forbear in future the wrongs of the past.
"The disposition of the government upon that point has been decidedly pronounced by facts which need no
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commentary. From the moment when war was de- clared, peace has been sought by it with a steady and unwearied assiduity, at the same time that every practi- cable preparation has been made, and every nerve ex- erted to prosecute the war with vigor, if the enemy should persist in his injustice. The law respecting seamen, the Russian Mission, the instructions sent to our Charge-d'-affaires in London, the prompt and ex- plicit disavowal of every unreasonable pretension falsely ascribed to us, and the solemn declaration of the gov- ernment in the face of the world, that it wishes for nothing more than a fair and honorable accommoda- tion, would be conclusive proofs of this, if any proofs were necessary. But it does not require to be proved, because it is self-evident."
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THE PIRATE'S SONG.
Ţ ET us climb the lofty billows, The tempest let us dare, On ocean be our dwelling, Our warlike bark is yare. The blood-red flag is floating Upon the wakened breeze, We claim beneath its menace Dominion of the seas ! What though we have not treasure! Our bright swords will supply The power, the joys, the splendor That coward slaves must buy. Our voice shall not be humble, · Our eyes shall have no tear, What others seek as favor Is yielded us from fear ; And those who scorned us suing, And smiled upon our hate, Will kneel to us for mercy, And know our word their fate. Our passions shall be choosers Midst joys before denied, Our will alone shall guide us, All rule of law defied ; For us the patient labor, No other toil have we, Than gathering others' earnings, To roam the dark blue sea. The shipwreck and the battle May daunt a meaner breast,
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THE PIRATE'S SONG.
The pleasures bought with danger For us have greater zest ; The world will loud revile us, But shall our cheeks grow pale ? The strong find cause of laughter When e'er the feeble rail. Away upon the waters ! The fair wind chides delay, Where others sowed the reapers, And all we meet our prey !
FREDERICK PINKNEY, Maryland.
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EDWARD COOTE PINKNEY.
N the third volume of his "Literati," Edgar A. Poe says: "It was the misfortune of Mr. Pinkney to have been born too far south. Had he been a New Englander, it is prob- able that he would have been ranked as the first of American lyrists by that magnanimous cabal which has so long controlled the destinies of American letters, in conducting the thing called 'The North American
Review.' " '" Mr. Poe should have substituted the word fortune in the place of misfortune in writing of Edward Coote Pinkney, of Maryland. And more than this, Mr. Poe must have been in a most unamiable mood when referring to the criticism of Pinkney's poems by the North American Review. A criticism just and gen- erous to the fullest degree of justice is accorded to Pinkney's poems in the North American Review of October, 1825. In referring to the "Serenade," the reviewer says: "If the name of Harrington or Carew had been subscribed to it, we should, in all probability, like other antiquaries, have been com- pletely taken in." And of the poem entitled "A Health," the following is written: "If he who reads it is a lover already it will make him love the more, and if he is not, he will determine to become one forth- with. There is a devotion and delicacy about it, an
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ardent and at the same time respectful and spiritual passion breathed out in it which must insure for it a ready admiration,"
In alluding, however, to the poem of "Rodolph" some severe comments are indulged in, which are not entirely undeserved by the author, and it is probably this just censure that calls forth the indignation of Mr. Poe. The Reviewer says : "We do not like the moral tone of this poetry. It is too close and too loud an echo to that of Byron. There is that abstracted and selfish gloom and moodiness about it, that solitary want of kindly human sympathies, that stiff and hard casing of pride, that sullen dissatisfaction with the present state, and that reckless doubt or disbelief of a future one, which seem to have been caught from Byron, and of which we have already had too much in Byron." The inspirer as well as the subject of most of his songs was a young lady of Baltimore city, a noted belle and beauty of that time. She was a Miss Mary Hawkins, who afterward became the wife of Mr. David McKim. It was to the fair Mary that the "Serenade" was sung; to her " starry eyes " he addressed himself, and she was the " seeming paragon" who walked through all his dreams. To her he drank a "Health" of which any woman might be proud; so pure is the offering, so sparkling the cup. Yet his love, like that of most poets, was unrequited, and his songs were left to be learned by less susceptible hearts, and sung to more fortunate loves. The year preceding the publication of his poems he was admitted to the Bar, and in the same year, 1824, he married "the beautiful Miss Georgeana McCausland," who was the daughter of Marcus MeCausland, Esq., a highly respected citizen of Baltimore. At an early age, Edward Pinkney had entered the United States navy; but soon after the
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death of his father, in the year 1822, in consequence of a personal difficulty with his superior officer, he re- signed his commission. He was one who believed in " the holy text of pike and gun " most implicitly; he challenged Commodore Ridgely to fight. The chal- lenger was but a midshipman at the time, a mere bantling in the eyes of a weather-beaten tar, and so he was forced to resign. This circumstance would be a laughable one were it not for the sad after-scenes into which it introduced our rash young poet. It was after this that he was admitted to the Bar. His thorough knowledge of mathematics, together with a perfect ac- quaintance with the works of classical authors, gained for Pinkney, who had already won the name of poet, a high place among the scholars of his state. In 1826 he was appointed Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University of Maryland. His professor- ship was, however, without emolument, and he was obliged to abandon the calling most suited to his talents.
War was at that time raging between Spain and Mexico. Pinkney, having abandoned the profession of law, embarked for Mexico with the determination of seeking employment in the Mexican navy. The Mexi- cans, however, having become jealous of the too frequent admission of foreigners into their Navy, refused further applications coming from Americans Commodore Porter, who was then Commander-in-Chief of the Mexican naval forces, used his influence in Pinkney's behalf, and the offer of his services was accepted ; yet some delay was necessary to remove any obstacle in the way of place. If "delays are dangerous" to common mortals, they certainly proved so in the case of this young "fire-eater," for he became involved in a quarrel with a Mexican officer whom he killed in a duel; he
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was then obliged to leave the country to avoid prosecu- tion by the Mexican authorities. Afflicted with illness and deeply merged in debt, he returned with a broken spirit to his native city. In the year 1827 he was chosen as the editor of "The Marylander," a partizan paper published in the interests of the Adams party. The first number was issued in the city of Baltimore, on Wednesday, the 3d of December, 1827. General Andrew Jackson was elected to the Presidency, how- ever, and the existence of the paper ceased. As an editor, Pinkney was noted for grace and vigor of style, yet its beauty was marred by extreme party-spirit and merciless invective. Although his nervous system was completely shattered by the encroachment of disease, the brilliancy of his intellect remained undimmed to the moment of his death. The following is an extract from one of the newspapers of the day; Edward Coote Pinkney is the subject: "To describe his person as it was before disease had made its ravages upon it, when he stood erect in the youthful pride of manhood, would require a genius like his own, a poet who could make his pen subserve the purposes both of pen and pencil. We have never seen mauly beauty exhibited in such just proportions, or with so much effect. His form rose gracefully a few degrees above the common height of man,-every feature, every limb seemed the master- piece of Nature. The ample forehead, the mild, yet piercing eye, the happy blending of color in his counte- nance, its placid, yet melancholy and intelligent ex- pression rendered him an object of interest to every beholder."
A "child of nature," he possessed that misnamed generosity of spirit which is ungenerous to self-that charity which does not work at home. He never re- fused aid to another, and has been known to pawn his
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valuable articles of jewelry in behalf of those who seemed poorer than himself. He was endowed also with vir- tues most beautiful. He was honorable and brave, and despised the lack of honor or bravery in other men. In discussing his sins, remember also his virtues.
"What's done we partly may compute, Yet know not what's resisted."
The death of a wise parent at an age when he most needed the guidance and advice of a maturer mind and judgment is to be deplored. He yielded to dissipation3 which undermined his health, and caused his death in the very flower of manhood.
He was the seventh child of William Pinkney, born in London, England, on the 1st day of October, 1802. He died in Baltimore, Friday night, at ten minutes past. ten o'clock, on the 11th of April, 1828, aged twenty-six years. He was buried in the Unitarian Cemetery, near Baltimore. The funeral services were conducted by the Rev. William Ware, of New York. In the month of May, 1872, his remains were disinterred and buried in Greenmount Cemetery. At the time of writing this, no monument marks his grave.
His wife survived her poet-husband, as she called him, many years. She loved him, as only women love, through all the days of her life. He left one child, a son, who still exists, though afflicted with an incura- ble disease of the brain since his childhood.
A second edition of Pinkney's poems was published at Baltimore in the year 1838. His poems were again published, with an introduction by the poet Nathaniel Parker Willis, in the series of the Mirror Library, enti- tled the Morocco. A biographical notice of Edward Pinkney, by William Leggett, appeared in the New York Mirror in 1827. Pinkney's name will also be found in the London Atheneum of 1835, under the head of
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" Literature of the 19th Century," and in 1859 in Trub- ner's Guide to American Literature.
Such is a record of the brief life of Edward Pinkney. Let us be gentle-he is dead. If amid the sublime virtues of our heroes and heroines some sin glares out it is but the baleful mark of humanity. We will recall the words of the Austrian Empress to her son, Francis the First, upon the discovery of the evidences of her husband's frailties after his death :
" Remember nothing of them except my forgiveness and his virtues. Imitate his great qualities, but beware lest you fall into the same vices, in order that you may not in your turn be put to the blush by those who scrutinize your life."
A HEALTH.
BY EDWARD COOTE PINKNEY.
T FILL this cup to one made up Of loveliness alone, A woman, of her gentle sex The seeming paragon ; To whom the better elements And kindly stars have given A form so fair, that, like the air, "Tis less of earth than heaven.
Her every tone is music's own, Like those of morning birds, And something more than melody Dwells ever in her words ; The coinage of her heart are they, And from her lips each flows As one may see the burthened bee Forth issue from the rose.
Affections are as thoughts to her, · The measures of her hours ; Her feelings have the fragrancy, The freshness of young flowers; And lovely passions changing oft, So fill her, she appears The image of themselves by turns,- The idol of past years.
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Of ber bright face one glauce will trace A. picture on the brain, And of her voice in echoing hearts A sound must long remain ; But memory, such as mine of her, So very much endears, When death is nigh my latest sigh Will not be life's, but hers ..
I filled this cup to one made up Of lovliness alone, A woman, of her gentler sex The seeming paragon- Her bealth! and would on earth there stood Some more of such a frame, That life might be all poetry, And weariness a name.
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FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.
" Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called The Children of God."
RANCIS SCOTT KEY was born in the year 1779, in Frederick county, Maryland. His father, John Ross Key, was a lieutenant in the Second Rifle Company of Maryland, under Captain Thomas Price, in the war of Independence. This company marched to Boston at the outbreaking of the Revolution. Philip Barton Key was the brother of John Ross Key, and a noted Tory. The property of the latter having been confiscated, the magnanimous spirit of John Ross Key was evinced by a noble act. He di- vided equally with his brother his own possessions. John Ross Key was the owner of a fine estate in Fred- erick county. The mansion, built of brick, covered a large area of ground. From a centre building extended wings on either side, while around the whole were broad piazzas according to the southern fashion. On every side stretched a beautiful lawn, which sloped almost imperceptibly into a terraced garden of flower and shrub. Many trees shaded the lawn, and not far distant in sombre grandeur stood a wood through which flowed, with happy murmurs, Pipe Creek.
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FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.
At the foot of the hill upon which stood the Key mansion was a spring of limpid water, about whose brink gathered the gay-hearted youths and maidens of the neighborhood.
The meadow that stretched out from the foot of the hill was, in the genial months of Spring and Summer, very green. Seeming to rest against the sky, rose the Catoctin Mountain, now merged in shadows, now seen below a curtain of purple or crimson clouds, or else with its clear back-ground of summer-blue, its dusky foreshadows extending along the base, while peak and crag glowed with the sun-gold of morning or evening. Such was the birth-place of Francis Scott Key. His sister, Anne Phebe Charlotte, was the friend and com- panion of his boyhood days. This girl and boy were the only children of John Ross Key. They were re- markable for physical beauty, as well as for those rarer beauties of heart and mind that leave in some shape a lasting impression for those who follow. They loved enthusiastically all lovely things- of God's creation, therefore they loved one another with peculiar devotion. In the following lines, suggested by his departure from home for school, the young student reveals his pure affection for his sister :
I think of thee-I feel the glow Of that warm thought-yet well I know No verse a brother's love may show, My sister ! But ill should I deserve the name Or warmth divine, that poet's claim, If I for thee no lay could frame, My sister ! I think of thee-of those bright hours, Rich in Life's first and fairest flowers, When childhood's gay delights were ours, My sister !
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Those sunny paths were all our own, And thou and I were there alone, Each to the other only known, My sister !
In every joy and every care, We two, andwe alone, were there, The brightness and the gloom to share, My sister !
And then there came that dreaded day When I with thee no more must stay, But to the far school haste away, My sister !
Sad was the parting-sad the days, And dull the school, and dull the plays, Ere I again on thee may gaze, My sister !
But longest days may yet be past, And cares of school away be cast, And home and thee be seen at last, My sister !
The mountain-top, the meadow plain, The winding creek, the shaded lane, Shall shine in both our eyes again, My sister !
Who, then, shall first my greeting seek ? Whose warm tear fall upon my check ? And tell the joy she cannot speak ? My sister !
This poem, though rather hackneyed in style and common-place in expression, contains a depth of affection in its tone that is pure and beautiful. Whatever objec- tion may be brought by the critic against the poem, cer- tainly the strength of love between the brother and the sister is not sufficiently commonplace to have become hackneyed.
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Francis S. Key was educated at Saint John's College at Annapolis. The class to which he belonged was known as the "Tenth Legion," because of its brilliant successes. The President of the College at that time was Dr. John McDowell. Many years after, on the 22d of February, 1827, Mr. Key, by invitation, delivered an address before the Alumni of Saint John's, the subject being Education. After leaving college he read law in the office of Jeremiah Townley Chase, who was one of the judges of the General Court of Maryland at that time. One of his fellow-students was Roger Brooke Taney, afterward Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The high polish and perfect culture of Annapolis society, rendered it an attractive place to the distinguished men and women of the day. Did a stu- dent wish for eminence in the Profession of the Law, he was sure to seek for its attainment in the good old city of Annapolis. Mr. Taney has told us of the scarlet- cloaked judges, sitting solemnly in chairs placed upon an elevated platform, and of the assembly of Maryland's famous lawyers gathered at the bar. Judge Chase re- quired of his students a strict attendance at the Court, that they might learn, by observation, the manner in which important cases were conducted. Mr. Key was thereby enabled, in early manhood, to attain to much knowledge through the experience of others, a precious legacy not always handed down through books. After his admission to the bar, Mr. Key returned to his native county. In the year 1801 he began the practice of the Law at Frederick City, Maryland. In a short time, how- ever, he removed to Georgetown, in the District of Co- lumbia. Here he rose to eminence as a lawyer in the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as the courts of Maryland and the District. In the year 1814 Francis Scott Key made himself famous as the author of the world-known song of "The Star Spangled Banner."
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Accompanied by Colonel John S. Skinner,* on board the cartel-ship Minden,
Protected by the fair white flag that floats In times of war, the silent pledge of peace,
Mr. Key went to ask the release of several prisoners, one among them being Dr. Beanes, of Upper Marlborough, in Maryland.
These two gentlemen were detained on board the ship Surprise, yet were treated with courtesy the while. They were transferred again to the Minden, which was an- chored in view of Fort McHenry. While the conflict raged, Mr. Key remained in captivity, not knowing through the long night of September the 13th, whether Victory smiled on America or Great Britain. Aroused to agony by suspense, Mr. Key gazed through the mists of dawn in search of his country's starry flag. When day broke he beheld the Flag floating in proud defiance above the dark outlines of the Fort. In that moment the words of Liberty's triumphal song rose from his patriotic heart. It was hastily written in pencil on the back of an old letter, taken from his pocket. On the night after his arrival in the city of Baltimore, he wrote the words out in full and showed them to his brother- in-law, Judge Nicholson, who was one of the defenders of Fort McHenry. Judge Nicholson proved his recog- nition of its worth, by taking it to the office of "The Baltimore American," where he gave orders that it be printed in small hand-bill form for general circulation. The type-setter of the Star Spangled Banner was Samuel
* It is of Mr. J. S. Skinner that the following was written by John Quincy Adams. (Adams' Memoirs, page 515, Vol. 4.)
"He is a man of mingled character, of daring and pernicious principles, of restless and rash, and yet of useful and honorable enterprise. Ruffian, patriot and philanthropist are so blended in him, that I cannot appreciate him without a mingled sentiment of detestation and esteem."
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Sands, an apprentice boy in that office. He is now, in 1874, the editor of the American Farmer, a valuable contribution to the agricultural interests of the country. The song was first sung by Charles Durang, in a restau- rant next to the Holliday Street Theatre.
It was next sung by the Durang Brothers, amateur actors, at the Holliday Street Theatre. It was received and re-echoed with enthusiasm. It had "a run" of several weeks, and was greeted each night with unflag- ging interest. From this introduction the Holliday Street Theatre won a national reputation, while on its stage moved the most renowned actors of the period. This patriotic offering of an incorruptible soul pene- trated the hearts of the people, as can only the glad hymn of a nation's victory or the mournful note of its death-wail ! It rang like an exultant laugh throughout the Land of its birth-The Republic of America.
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER.
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed, at the twilight's last gleaming ? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming ; And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there : O, say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave ?
On that shore dimly scen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's hauglity host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses ? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream : 'Tis the Star Spangled Banner; O long may it wave O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave !
And where are the foes who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of War, and the Battle's confusion, 20#
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A Home and a Country should leave us no more ?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave; And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph doth wave O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave !
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation ; Blest with Victory and Peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a Nation ! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto, "In God is our trust ;" And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!
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