It's rare to see the morning bleeze, [blaze]
Like a bonfire frae the sea;
It's fair to see the burnie kiss [streamlet]
The lip o' the flowery lea;
An' fine it is on green hillside,
When hums the hinny bee;
But rarer, fairer, finer far,
Is the ingle side to me.
Glens may be gilt wi' gowans rare [daisies]
The birds may fill the tree,
An' haughs hae a' the scented ware [river meadows]
That simmer's growth can gie;
But the canty hearth where cronies meet, [cheerful]
An' the darling o' our e'e—
That makes to us a warl' complete,
Oh! the ingle side for me.
THE HINT O' HAIRST
[From the same]
It's dowie in the hint o' hairst, [dreary; end; harvest]
At the wa'-gang o' the swallow, [away-going]
When the wind blows cauld an' the burns grow bauld, [bold]
An' the wuds are hingin' yellow;
But oh! it's dowier far to see
The deid-set o' a shining e'e
That darkens the weary warld on thee.
There was muckle love atween us twa—
Oh! twa could ne'er been fonder;
An' the thing on yird was never made
That could hae gart us sunder.
But the way of Heaven's aboon a' ken, [above all knowing]
And we maun bear what it likes to sen'— [must]
It's comfort, though, to weary men,
That the warst o' this warld's waes maun en'.
There's mony things that come and gae,
Just kent and syne forgotten;
The flow'rs that busk a bonnie brae [deck; slope]
Gin anither year lie rotten.
But the last look o' that lovin' e'e,
An' the dying grip she gied to me,
They're settled like eternitie—
O Mary! that I were with thee.
[JAMES G. BIRNEY]
James Gillespie Birney, leader of the Conservative Abolitionists, opposed to the radicalism of William Lloyd Garrison and all his ilk, yet as earnest and sincere in his hatred of slavery, was born at Danville, Kentucky, February 4, 1792. He was at Transylvania University for a short time, then proceeded to Princeton, from which institution he was graduated in 1810. In 1814 he became a lawyer in his native town of Danville. In 1816 Birney was in the Kentucky legislature; but two years later he removed to Alabama, settling upon a plantation near Huntsville. The slavery question was appealing to him more and more, and he finally became an agent for the American Colonization Society. In the fall of 1833 Birney returned to Kentucky, and went to Danville, where he freed his own slaves, and organized the Kentucky Anti-Slavery Society. On January 1, 1836, the first issue of his anti-slavery sheet, The Philanthropist, appeared from his Cincinnati office. This soon became the Bible of the Conservative Abolitionists, who opposed the drastic methods of Garrison and his followers. In his speeches Birney denounced all violence and fanaticism in the handling of the slavery problem, though he himself received much violence at the hands of mobs and almost insane partisans. His strong addresses through the North won him the secretaryship of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1837. In this capacity he was soon recognized as the real leader of the "Constitutional Abolitionists," who said they stood upon the Constitution, fought against secession, and desired to wipe slavery from the face of the American continent with decency and in order. In 1840 and again in 1844 Birney was the candidate of the Liberty party for president of the United States. In the second campaign he multiplied his very small vote received in the first race by nine. He was thrown from his horse, in 1845, and the final twelve years of his life were passed as an invalid. Birney died at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, November 25, 1857. Besides numerous contributions to the press, his principal writings are Letter on Colonization (1834); Addresses and Speeches (1835); American Churches the Bulwarks of American Slavery (1840); Speeches in England(1840); and An Examination of the Decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Case of Strader et al. v. Graham (1850).