ear catches and the memory retains such melody and such verse more easily than any other.* As to a hymn for Americans, it must of all things proclaim, assert, and exult in the freedom of those who are to sing it. Let this be the expression; let it be brimful of loyalty to the flag, which is our only national symbol, and for that all the dearer; let its allusions be to our fathers' struggle for national existence, and its spirit be that of our nationality; let it have a strong, steady, rhythmical flow; and these points secured as to the words, the air is the most important matter. If that be such a one as all who sing can sing, and as the majority will like, association and habit will accomplish the rest. The music must not be brilliant like an Italian cavatina; or curiously harmonized like a German choral; but simple and strong, with a graceful, lively strength. A song which fulfilled these conditions, and which superadded to their requirements the inspiration that would set them all at naught, or make them entirely superfluous, would pervade and penetrate, and cheer the land like sunlight. But how hard it is to lay down rules which shall be unfailing guides upon a subject like this, may be * A square melody is one consisting of four phrases of equal length, the last ending on the harmony on which the first began, or of two or more groups based upon this formula, which will be found to be the model of almost all melodies, either ballad, martial, or operatic, that have become popular. "Auld Lang Syne" is a marked example. The first phrase ends upon the dominant; the second upon the subdominant; the third upon the dominant; and the fourth, of course, upon the tonic, whence the first started. seen by the following stanza of a hymn which has the air of having been written by one of those gentlemen whom the English journalists and draughtsmen, including those in the employ of "Punch," seem to regard as our representative men. We air the greatest nation In all the Lord's creation. We air the hull world's wonder, En we hev the loudest thunder This undeniably conforms to the condition of expressing with directness and strength the convictions and predominating sentiment of at least a certain part of our people, besides stating, in addition, a noticeable fact in our country's physics. It is also manifestly emulous of this stanza of "Rule Britannia.” "The nations not so blest as thee Must in their turns to tyrants fall; But the complacency of the unlettered Yankee has failed to equal the arrogance of the eminent British poet; and as we can admit no inferior merit, a hymn of which this is a specimen, should for that reason alone .be rejected. It should be remarked here, that the outcry in England against the closing sentence of Mr. Seward's dispatch of May 4th to Mr. Dayton, in which he said that our nation and government would "stand hereafter as they are now, objects of human wonder and human affection," is manifestly owing to the fact that he stole Thomson's thunder. But he greatly moderated its bellowings. Even in the excitement of the time in which he wrote, and under the provocation which had been received from Europe, he only ventured the not absolutely unsafe prediction, that this Republic would remain an object of wonder and affection, as it had remained through the changes which, during its brief existence, had passed over other countries. We all felt, that however true this might be, it would have been in better taste, it would have shown a more generous and high toned consideration of the feelings of other nations, to omit it; but the circumstances under which it was written, were peculiar, and the lapse was venial. But Mr. Seward was not tempted into telling Mr. Dayton, in Thomson's style, that all other nations would crouch in fear of us, or even regard their own position with dissatisfation on comparing it with ours. That kind of insolent bluster, and the conduct of which it is the exponent, did not come into fashion among folk of any nurture in the old England, until our ancestors had left it. Nor among such people is it tolerated for a moment, here. But "Rule Britannia," is a song written by one of the most eminent and most decorous British poets, and is perhaps higher in favor than any other patriotic British lyric, Campbell's not excepted; and yet I am able to say, that such an arrogant stanza as that quoted above from it, would have insured the instant rejection of a song by the New York National Hymn Committee;—who, by the way, were a fair representation of the general intelli gence of the country, only four of the twelve, as was very proper, being taken from men particularly devoted to literature. Another objection would surely have been made to a stanza written in the British poet's style. High literary finish would very properly not have been insisted on; but in America, even a rhyme to "free," for which much will be passed over, is not regarded as a palliation for such an onslaught on the language, as "The nations not so blest as thee." VI. But to turn our attention to the songs received by the Committee. No one of them was deemed to satisfy all the requirements of the needed hymn; and so the prize was not awarded.* The decision was, * REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE UPON A NATIONAL HYMN. The undersigned, having been requested to act as a Committee upon a Prize National Hymn, accepted the office doubtfully, and with some reluctance. They doubted the efficacy of the means proposed to the end which was sought; they were reluctant to assume the function of deciding for their fellow-citizens a question which it seemed to them could really be settled only by general consent and the lapse of time. And deeply as the events of the present momentous period of our country's history stir the heart of every true American, and strong as the tendency appeared among persons in all parts of the land, and of all grades of culture, to give a lyric expression to patriotic feeling, they still felt that the chances were very slight of obtaining at the call of a Committee and by the offer of a prize, a National Hymn which would live in the hearts and upon the lips of the American people. Therefore, although they did not feel at liberty to decline the service asked of them, they expressly reserved to themselves, in their published conditions of competition, "the right of rejecting all contributions, whatever their merit, should none of them be deemed suitable." The event has fully justified their apprehensions. They received nearly twelve hundred manuscripts in answer to their call, of which about one-third furnished new music as well as words. To the ex |