Wendell Phillips, "the silver-tongued orator of America," and anti-slavery reformer. Born in Boston, Mass., November 29, 1811; died, February 2, 1884.
The Carpathian Mountains may shelter tyrants. The slopes of Germany may bear up a race more familiar with the Greek text than the Greek phalanx. For aught I know, the wave of Russian rule may sweep so far westward as to fill once more with miniature despots the robber castles of the Rhine. But of this I am sure: God piled the Rocky Mountains as the ramparts of freedom. He scooped the Valley of the Mississippi as the cradle of free States. He poured Niagara as the anthem of free men.
THE SHIP COLUMBIA.
Edward G. Porter. In an article entitled "The Ship Columbia and the Discovery of Oregon," in the New England Magazine, June, 1892.
Few ships, if any, in our merchant marine, since the organization of the republic, have acquired such distinction as the Columbia.
By two noteworthy achievements, 100 years ago, she attracted the attention of the commercial world and rendered a service to the United States unparalleled in our history. She was the first American vessel to carry the stars and stripes around the globe; and, by her discovery of "the great river of the West" to which her name was given, she furnished us with the title to our possession of that magnificent domain which to-day is represented by the flourishing young States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.
The famous ship was well-known and much talked about at the time, but her records have mostly disappeared, and there is very little knowledge at present concerning her.
COLUMBIA'S EMBLEM.
Edna Dean Proctor. In September Century
The rose may bloom for England,
The lily for France unfold;
Ireland may honor the shamrock,
Scotland her thistle bold;
But the shield of the great Republic,
The glory of the West,
Shall bear a stalk of the tasseled corn—
Of all our wealth the best.
The arbutus and the golden-rod
The heart of the North may cheer;
And the mountain laurel for Maryland
Its royal clusters rear;
And jasmine and magnolia
The crest of the South adorn;
But the wide Republic's emblem
Is the bounteous, golden corn!