By far the most brilliant poetic production of the period is the elegiac ode, by Theodore O’Hara, a poet, soldier and editor, of Kentucky. It is entitled the “Bivouac of the Dead,” and had its origin in the occasion of the interment, at Frankfort, in 1847, of the gallant soldiers who fell in battle. It is noted for its rare beauty of style, its genuine pathos, its descriptive ideality, its heroic vigor, and its patriotic fervor. Genuine appreciation and candid criticism will place it with Wolfe’s “Burial of Sir John Moore” and Collins’s “How Sleep the Brave,” among the classic lyric gems of the language. Its lines are used for inscriptions upon the tombs of heroes all over the land, and one of its immortal stanzas adorns the National Cemetery at Arlington Heights. It goes to the heart of every true soldier, and is likely to remain enshrined there forever. Mention must also be made of the admiration which lingers about the pensive beauty, the pathetic grace, and the vivid picture of Whittier’s “Angels of Buena Vista.”
The excitement in the public mind occasioned by the war caused many remarkable discussions, and the pulpit of New England, with its usual disposition to intermeddle in political affairs, was not tardy in presenting its opinions. The most distinguished preacher of the time, Theodore Parker, in words of burning eloquence denounced all wars, and the injustice of this one, and with elaborate figures estimated its cost and expenses at two hundred millions of dollars, and, weighing this sum against the value of our acquisition, pronounced the war profitless, and asked, contemptuously, “What have we got to show for all this money?”
In the light of the present hour, the mere beginning that has been made in the development of the acquired regions will afford a partial answer to illustrate the lack of historic prescience that blinded the perceptions of the time. The growth of these new countries seems to point to a period, not far distant, when they shall contain a population as great as that which inhabits the Cis-Mississippi States.
The new apportionment bill which has just been enacted gives to the States already erected in this region almost as many Representatives in Congress as all New England, and another decade will show that it has passed far in advance in wealth and population. California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah from their mines alone have added more than two thousand millions of dollars to the world’s wealth, and are now yielding more than one-third of the annual product of gold and silver in the entire world. Two Pacific railways, the greatest feats of modern engineering, traversing the regions that were said to be “occupied with broken mountains and dreary wilds,” and “fit only for the restless hunter and wandering trapper,” have revolutionized the commerce of the world. England seeks Australia and New Zealand through the Golden Gate, and the productions of China and Japan flow to our magnificent harbors of the Pacific and cross the American continent on their way to supply the demands of Europe.
The archæological discoveries in these regions disclose a prehistoric occupancy by a race that founded great cities and built palaces and temples, and who shall say, that, under the dominion of the Anglo Saxon, the glories of their antiquity may not be surpassed? Who shall say what mighty results shall flow from the contest which began when Gen. Taylor crossed the Nueces in the march to the Rio Grande?