Through hearts unconscious of the fire, The seeds of Milton's lofty thoughts. All hopeless of the spring, Broke forth in joy, as through them glowed Old Greece was young, and Homer true, And Dante's burning page And kindled holy rage. God's Gospel cheered the sacred cause, Which makes His Right our covenant, Oh, sad for him whose light went out Who could not live to feel his kin And sadder still to miss the joy That twenty millions know, From all that makes life low. BOSTON, April, 1861. A condition of the general mind which brought forth on the spur of the occasion a lyric so vigorous, so inspiring, so vividly expressive of the sentiment that stirred the heart of the nation, was surely one from which another, breathing the same spirit in like stirring accents, and of general application, might reasonably be hoped. And so the committee cast out its net, and waited patiently for the dawning. Not only, however, was all not to be fish that came to that net, but, like the cat-fishing negro who rejected with aus tere self-denial the bass which he found upon his hook, because "when he fished for bass, he fished for bass, but when he fished for catty, he fished for catty," the committee would have what it sought or nothing, no matter how much better fish insisted upon swallowing the bait; and as to getting its "catty," it had the gravest doubts. The prize was therefore not offered for the best hymn that should be written, but for the hymn needed, and if that, in the judgment of the committee, did not come, no matter how much superior "an article" of another style were offered, all were to be rejected.* It is worth while to state * The following are the call and the conditions of competition published by the committee: A NATIONAL HYMN. In obedience to the request of many citizens, who have observed the tendency to give poetic expression to the emotion which stirs the heart of the nation, the gentlemen whose names are undersigned have consented to act as a Committee to award a prize of Five Hundred Dollars for a National Hymn, set to music (either original or selected), upon the following conditions: 1. The Hymn is to be purely patriotic, adapted to the whole country-not a war-song, or only appropriate to the present moment. 2. It must consist of not less than sixteen lines, and is not to exceed forty, exclusive of a chorus or burden, which is essential. 3. It should be of the simplest form and most marked rhythm; the words easy to be retained by the popular memory, and the melody and harmony such as may be readily sung by ordinary voices. 4. For the words and music (whether the latter be original, or selected and adapted) from the same hand, which the Committee would prefer, Five Hundred Dollars, or a gold medal of that value, will be awarded. For the Hymn alone, or for the music alone (if original), Two Hundred and Fifty Dollars, or a gold medal of that value. 5. The Committee retain the copyright of both words and music of the Hymn to which the prize is awarded; and reserve the right of rejecting all contributions, whatever their merit, should none of them be deemed suitable. 6. The profits of the sale of the Hymn are to be devoted to the Patriotic Fund. this very explicitly; because although it was clearly enough set forth in the committee's proposals, many persons, some of them intelligent enough to know better, if they had read those proposals, have complained of the final decision, as if the committee had done the competitors wrong in not awarding the prize to some one of them. Not a few also, and invariably the authors of those hymns which had the least claim to consideration, seemed to think that the committee was bound to coddle their feelings, to flatter their vanity, and to enter into personal correspondence with them; and in fact that the committee had placed itself under some obligations to competitors: when the real state of the case was that the obligation was all on the other side. The committee merely accepted the responsibility and the labor of examining and 7 The words and music must be furnished by the 20th day of June next. 8. As the Committee may desire to publish a selection from the manuscripts in a volume in aid of the Patriotic Fund, they request those writers who are willing that their productions should be used for that purpose to signify their assent. 9. Individual applications to members of the Committee will be disregarded. 10. Each Hymn offered must be distinguished only by a motto or cipher, and be accompanied by a sealed envelope bearing the same motto or cipher, and containing the writer's name and address. All communications should be addressed to Maunsell B. Field, Esq., Secretary of the National Hymn Committee, New York city. 11. The Committee will return no manuscripts. comparing all the songs that might be sent in, and of deciding whether such a hymn had been sent as in their opinion would meet the public necessity; nothing more. The call, having been made the subject of newspaper comment throughout the country, met with a response, for the extent of which the committee were not prepared. Nearly twelve hundred competitors appeared upon the field. Manuscripts came from all quarters of the country, including California, nay, even from England, and at last from Italy. The committee went at its work at the earliest moment, and performed it as rapidly as the other engagements of its various members permitted. The twelve hundred competitors, at least, will like to know that this was the manner of proceeding. The manuscripts containing words alone were first opened, the music being laid aside for separate consideration. The verses were then read by the member who opened the envelope containing them. If they were condemned at once by a nearly unanimous voice, they were cast into a waste-basket ready at hand; if not, they were reserved for future consideration. But, by a waste-basket, must not be understood any of those ordinary wicker concavities, known to mortals by that name. A vast washing-basket—a buck-basket," big enough to hold Falstaff himself was made the temporary tomb of these extinguished hopes and this receptacle was filled five times with rejected manuscripts, which were seized upon for incendiary purposes by the cooks of the gentlemen at whose houses the meetings of the Committee took place. Alas, for the hapless writers! Were even the priceless manuscript plays of the Shakespearian age that Warton's cook purloined, and used to put under pies, so lamented as those remorselessly incremated hymns will be? The mass of these manuscripts were "only of interest to their writers," or, in plain terms, either the flattest common-place, or absolutely neither rhyme nor reason. From the whole collection, only about thirty were reserved as worthy of a second reading, and these, on a second and third examination, were reduced about one-half. The hymns sent in with music were about three hundred in number. To enable them fairly to judge the merits of these, the Committee called in competent musical aid, and after a winnowing of the heap over the piano-forte, those which were found worthy of a more particular hearing were sung. This second examination left less than twenty musical compositions in the hands of the Committee. Among the rejected musical manuscripts were very many that were evidently written by persons who were ignorant of the very first principles of harmony, and who to their ignorance added utter lack of native musical capacity.* *The committee were under obligations, which I venture here to express for them, to Mr. William Scharfenberg, and to Mr. Cutler, Organist of Trinity Church, and some members of the choir of that venerable establishment. These gentlemen placed their time and talents at the service of the committee, with heartiness and alacrity; and though gracefully leaving judgment upon the merits of the compositions placed before them entirely in the hands of the committee, did much to lighten and to aid their labors. |