Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

THE RULING PASSIONS.

A POEM.

"While thus of chequer'd lie our motley lay,
Has sketch'd a various, though a crude survey,
Say, shall Columbia's sons the theme prolong!
Their "Ruling Passion" claims our noblest song.
Theirs is the pride, bequeath'd by glorious sires,
To guard their Lares, and protect their fires:
To rear a race enlightened, brave and free,
Heirs of the soil and tenants of the sea;
Whose breasts the Union shield—its laws revere,
As country sacred, and as freedom dear.
Long as our hardy yeomanry command
The rich sea-empire of their native land;
While mid the labors of the ripening plain,
They form the phalanx, and the courier train
While, in our martial school, are chiefs enroll'd.
As Lincoln prudent, and as Putnam bold,
While, Calvinist expell'd, our senate prize
Hearts, just as Russell's—heads, as Bowdoin's wise;
While guides our realm a PATRIOT SAGE, who first
When power's volcano o'er our nation burst,
Unaw'd, like Pliny, saw the flame aspire,
And cities sink in cataracts of fire;
Undaunted heard the roaring of the spheres,
While all Vesuvius thundered in his ears:
No longer dread Columbia's gallant host,
The fierce invader, lowering on their coast;
Nor wiles of traitors, nor corruption's power;
Nor Blount's conspiracy, nor Randolph's "flour"
Of late, in Gorgon's hall, from Anarch's tub,
What rhetoric grac'd the orgies of the Club!
But now, an injur'd people wiser grown,
Taught dear experience, by the wrongs they've known,
This maxim hold—which much fine spouting saves—
"Exclusive Patriots are conclusive Knaves."