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VII.

It has been already said that the large majority of songs received by the committee were the merest common-place, brief effusions of decent dulness, or fantastic folly. But it would have been strange indeed if among the contributions of such a great number of competitors, scattered over the whole country, there were not some traits of originality possessing a certain interest, though it were not exactly of that kind that properly pertains to a national hymn. Not a few of the manuscripts tended much to relieve the tedium of the readings by their revelations of the very peculiar notions entertained by their writers as to the kind of words and music suited to a national hymn, and some of them by the complacent requests which accompanied them. The following composition was one of the earliest opened.

A NATIONAL HYMN.

All hail our country great,
May she never falter;

But every darned Secessionist

Be hung up by a halter!

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All hail, our coun-try great, May she never fal- ter;

But every damn'd seces-sion - ist Be hung up by the hal-ter.

It is supposed the committee understand fugue and figured bass. The money may be sent to the author at Albany.

It may, perhaps, be doubted whether the author of the above was quite serious; but of the sober thriftiness of purpose with which the mass of the committee's correspondents wrote, there can be no question whatever. One, who inhabits New England, sent a song entitled "The Nation's Bride," which he positively refuses to give to the public for less than the prize offered-two hundred and fifty dollars; and of which therefore, it can only be said here, that after bringing a mysterious person, called the nation's bride, upon the carpet in the first stanza, he says in the second:

And lo here is the sidesaddle

Which the bride with horse and bridle

May at her pleasure take a ride

In the buoyancy of her pride.

As to this performance-the song, not the ride— the author makes the following communication:

The foregoing hymn was in part written by me after seeing a lady on horsback which in my fancy resembled Washington in feature and exspression of face, which hymn since seeing the reward offord for a national hymn with some addition and allteration to suit the occasion I send to your committee for considderation for the foregoing object and prize the only inducement being our nations glory and the need of the monney offerd. As I am no musician I shell not attempt to compose the music. This confession of mixed motives, though it may show less tact, is probably the fruit of more candor than appears in some other letters written by competitors; and the writer's refraining from the composition of the music, simply because he was not a musician, shows a capacity of self-knowledge which does not always accompany greater advantages and greater pretensions than his. He certainly was not of kin to the Irishman who didn't know whether he could play the violin, because he had "niver thried." It is safe to say that if all the people who were no musicians had refrained from writing music for a national hymn, the committee's labors would have been considerably shortened.

It might have been well, too, if a distinct and uniform notion of what a national hymn is had been impressed upon the general mind of the nation before twelve hundred individuals of it attacked thirteen hapless committee-men upon that subject, pen in hand. For instance, one competitor sent in the Declaration of Independence in rhyme, after this fashion::

When in the course of human events, a people needful find
They must dissolve the bonds that did them to another bind,

And to assume, 'mongst earthly powers, a separate, equal station,
To which by law they entitled are, as well as by creation;
In such events, respect demands that they should then declare
The reasons that impell'd the change, and what the causes are.
We (the Americans) hold these, as truths self-evident,
That men created equal are, when on this earth they're sent,
With rights inalienable endow'd, as liberty and life!
Pursuit of happiness as well (within this world of strife).

And so on, for a hundred lines. Another sent a composition of fourteen stanzas, of which the following are specimens:

A CONSTITUTION HYMN.

What is that stings the Eare?-it sounds as of yore
Is the Nation a Bleeding-by the Cannon once more
Some links seeme severd-From the Union's Throng
The Banner says stay-To the Union Belong

Corus-Then all hail, Constitution-Thy Sperit we'll Keep
For thy starspangled banner-it never shall sleep

The Old Constitution-is seald to each Heart, So firm by the Fathers-no Orater can start All hale to Columbia-for the Trater must fall For Linkon's deep measures-must silence them all Corus-Then all Hale Constitution-Thy sperit we'll Keep For thy starspangled Banner—it never will sleep

As Chaneless our sperits-and Fredom as Time
And the starspangled banner-ever wave in the line
And the sperit for fredom-will not ceace to run
For he that wild fredom was grate Washington
Corus-Then all hale Constitution-thy sperit we'll keep
For thy starspangled Banner-it never will sleep

Heres the last dying words-From a Sogers bold Toung That the Stares and the Stripes-in Union be sung Equal Rights and Fredom-is the old mottoes demand In the old seventysix spirit-our nation shall Stand Corus-Then all hail Constitution-thy Sperit we'll keep For thy starspangled banner-it never will sleep

God's willd free to man-all things thatt he needes
From his Birth to his grave-while onward he speedes
Yet peace fredom and union-the best boon to life
Except what god made—when he made man a wife

Then shout for such union-the best boon thats given
It gladens the heart-and wills us for heaven

From another came a sort of chronicle ballad, longer by half than "Chevy Chace," which opened thus:

:

FOR THE NATION A CHRONICLE.

O land of America of the i sing
As prophetic visions oer the Rise
Thou Boasted land without a king
Thy Glory granted from the skies

From poperys plagues thy children were
Among heathen driven to find a home
And the pilgrim fathers to God did swear
That popery among them should not come

Skipping over thirty-four stanzas, we read the following record of the state of affairs at the time of the writing of the chronicle. The South is,—

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