Part 4

Seeing, under our government, it is not purchasing a liberty by pecuniary rewards, further, than compensating a prothonotary, for taking bond and security, that guardians are agreed, and keeping a just register, for the credit and safety of the rising family. And as the contract is partly civil in its nature, and civil government is bound to defend the civil rights--we believe it perfectly consonant to the analogy of faith, which might be evinced from the fourth chapter of Ruth. But as it is partly social, and the parties contracting come under the mutual obligations to fulfil their relative duties, it ought to be consummated before witnesses. And as it is partly religious, every family appertaining to the Church of Christ, commences a nursery, or infant society, to train up their family in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We believe it right, that whenever a church in full order exists, that the pastor, or church officer should consecrate them, to the business assigned them as a Church of Christ, taking their obligations for the due performance of their duty.

THOMAS JOHNSON, Jr.

Thomas Johnson, Junior, the first Kentucky poet, who, for many years, enjoyed the sobriquet of the "Drunken Poet of Danville," was born in Virginia about 1760, and he came to Kentucky when twenty-five years of age. He settled at Danville, then a village, and immediately entered into the role of poet, punster, and ne'er-do-weel. Documentary evidence is extant to prove that Danville was a gay little town when the young Virginian arrived there about 1785; and he was early drawn into excesses, or led others into them. Johnson was a rather prolific maker of coarse satirical rhymes, which he finally assembled into a small pamphlet, and published them as _The Kentucky Miscellany_ (Lexington, 1796). This was the first book of poems, if they may be so termed, printed in Kentucky. The original price of this pamphlet was nine pence the copy, but it is impossible to procure it today for any price, and there is not an extant copy of this first edition. _The Kentucky Miscellany_ went into a second edition in 1815, and a third edition was published a few years later, but no copies of either edition are extant. The fourth and final edition appeared from the _Advertiser_ office at Lexington, in 1821, and a dog-eared, much-mutilated copy of this is in the collection of the Filson Club in Louisville--perhaps the only copy in the world. _The Miscellany_ contained but thirty-six small pages, about the size of the medical almanacs of to-day. Many of the little verses are very vulgar and actually obscene, perhaps due to the fact that Johnson could never quite bury John Barleycorn alive. The most famous of them is the _Extempore Grace_, which the bard delivered one day in the tavern of old Erasmus Gill in Danville. In his cups he stumbled into the tavern dining-room, where he found the meal over, and the guests gone, nothing being left but the crumbs. He glanced at the tables, then at Gill, and offered _Extempore Grace_. His lines on Danville, on Kentucky, and on several other subjects reveal the satirist; and the verses to Polly, his sweetheart, and to his favorite physician the better elements in his nature. That these rather vulgar verses of Johnson did not escape the censorship of Western advocates of the pure food law in literature, is made certain by a letter from an Ohio critic which appeared in the _Lexington Intelligencer_ for January 28, 1834. After having made a strong plea for the preservation of early Western verse, the writer added: "I do not mean to embrace the low doggerel of _Tom Johnson_; this was published some years ago, and I never felt _decency_ more outraged than when it was handed me to read by _mine landlady_! My stars! Save us from the _blackguardism_, for the world is sufficiently demoralized." Had this early critic of Tom's verses presented a bundle of them to some library, how many Western writers would rise up and call him blessed! Johnson died and was buried at Danville, but the date of his death or the exact place of his burial is unknown. He had passed and was almost forgotten by 1830.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky_, by R. H. Davidson (New York, 1847); _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, Kentucky, 1882); _Centre College Cento_ (Danville, Kentucky, January, 1907); _Kentuckians in History and Literature_, by J. W. Townsend (New York, 1907).

EXTEMPORE GRACE

[From _The Kentucky Miscellany_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1821)]

O! Thou who blest the loaves and fishes Look down upon these empty dishes; And that same power that did them fill, Bless each of us, but d---- old Gill!

DANVILLE

[From the same]

Accursed Danville, vile, detested spot, Where knaves inhabit, and where fools resort-- Thy roguish cunning, and thy deep design, Would shame a Bluebeard or an Algerine. O, may thy fatal day be ever curst, When by blind error led, I entered first.

KENTUCKY

[From the same]

I hate Kentucky, curse the place, And all her vile and miscreant race! Who make religion's sacred tie A mask thro' which they cheat and lie. Proteus could not change his shape, Nor Jupiter commit a rape With half the ease those villains can Send prayers to God and cheat their man! I hate all Judges here of late, And every Lawyer in the State. Each quack that is called Physician, And all blockheads in Commission-- Worse than the Baptist roaring rant, I hate the Presbyterian cant-- Their Parsons, Elders, nay, the whole, And wish them gone with all my soul.

HUDSON, WIFE MURDERER

[From the same]

Strange things of Orpheus poets tell, How for a wife he went to Hell; Hudson, a wiser man no doubt, Would go to Hell to be without!

PARSON RICE

[From the same]

Ye fools! I told you once or twice, You'd hear no more from canting R----e; He cannot settle his affairs, Nor pay attention unto prayers, Unless you pay up your arrears. Oh, how in pulpit he would storm, And fill all Hell with dire alarm! Vengeance pronounced against each vice, And, more than all, curs'd avarice; Preach'd money was the root of ill; Consigned each rich man unto Hell; But since he finds you will not pay, Both rich and poor may go that way. 'Tis no more than I expected-- The meeting-house is now neglected: All trades are subject to this chance, No longer pipe, no longer dance.

THE POET'S EPITAPH

[From the same]

Underneath this marble tomb, In endless shades lies drunken Tom; Here safely moored, dead as a log, Who got his death by drinking grog. By whiskey grog he lost his breath-- Who would not die so sweet a death?

GEORGE BECK

George Beck, classicist, born in England in 1749, became instructor of mathematics at Woolwich Academy, near London, at the age of twenty-seven years; but he was later dismissed. Beck married an English woman of culture and emigrated to the United States in 1795, reaching these shores in time to serve "Mad Anthony" Wayne as a scout in his Indian campaign. The wanderlust was upon George Beck, and he became one of the first of that little band of nomadic painters that came early to the Blue Grass country, and having once come remained. He arrived at Lexington in 1800; and it was not long before he began to send short original poems and spirited translations of Anacreon, Homer, Horace, and Virgil to old John Bradford's _Gazette_. At about this time, too, Beck was doing many portraits and a group of landscapes in oils of the Kentucky river country, a few of which have come down to posterity. Eighteen hundred and six seems to have been Beck's best year in Kentucky from the literary viewpoint, as the _Gazette_ is full of his verses and translations. He was widely known as the "Lexington Horace." Besides painting and poetry, George Beck was a rather learned astronomer, as his _Observations on the Comet_ of 1811 prove. With his wife he conducted an "Academy for Young Ladies" for several years. His last years were much embittered by the lack of appreciation upon the part of the Western public. The Kentucky of 1800 was not a whirlpool of art or literature by any means, and this cultured man languished and finally died among a people who cared very little for his fine learning or his manners. George Beck, poet, translator, mathematician, astronomer, artist, died in Lexington, Kentucky, December 14, 1812. His wife survived him until the cholera year of 1833, which swept away nearly two thousand citizens of Lexington and the Blue Grass.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Kentucky Gazette_ (Lexington, December 22, 1812); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New York, 1887, v. i).

FIFTEENTH ODE OF HORACE

A New Translation of the Fifteenth Ode of Horace, or Prophecy of Nerceus, from which (according to Count Algorotti and Dr. Johnson) Gray took his beautiful Ode, _The Bard_.

[From _The Kentucky Gazette_ (October 27, 1806)]

What time the fair perfidious shepherd bore The beauteous Helen back to Ilion's shore, To sleep the howling waves were won By Nerceus, Ocean's hoary son, While round the liquid realms he sung, From guilty love, what dire disasters sprung.

Thee, tainted Youth, what omens dire attend! Thy neck and Ilion's soon to Greece shall bend. To man and horse what sweat and blood, What carnage float down Xanthus' flood! What wrath on Troy shall Greece infuriate turn! What glittering domes, and spires, and temples burn!

In vain you boast the Queen of beauty's smiles, Her charms, her floating curls, her amourous wiles, These, these alas! will nought avail While Cretan arrows round you sail! And, tho' the fates awhile such guilt may spare, Vile dust at length shall smear that golden hair!

Trace back, vain Youth! sad Ilion's fate of old! Ulysses' sons and Nestor's yet behold, Teucer's and Diomede's more dread Horrific war shall round you shed; Then shall ye trembling fly like timid deer When hungry wolves are howling in their rear.

By promise Vain of Universal Sway Lur'd you from Greece the beauteous Queen away? In less than ten revolving years Achilles' dreadful fleet appears! His bloody trains of Myrmidonians dire Shall wrap proud Ilion's domes in Grecian fire!

ANACREON'S FIFTY-FIFTH ODE

[From _The Kentucky Gazette_ (November 3, 1806)]

What deathless Artist's mimic hand Shall paint me here the Ocean bland, Shall give the waves such kindling glows As when immortal Venus rose? Who, in phrenzy's flight of mind Such touch and tinctures bright may find To match her form and golden hair And naked paint the heavenly fair? While every amorous rival billow Strives her buoyant breast to pillow? 'Tis done! behold the wavelets green Softly press the Paphian Queen, Around her heavenly bosom play, Kiss its warm blush and melt away. Her graceful neck of pearl behold, Her wavy curls of floating gold: But none but lips divine may tell What Graces on that bosom dwell! Such bloom a bed of lilies shows Illumin'd by the crimson'd rose. Rounding off with grace divine Like hills of snow her shoulders shine. While streaming thro' the waves she swims The silvery maze half veils her limbs, Else where's the eye that durst behold Such beauty stream'd on heavenly mold? Th' enamour'd Triton's glittering train Sporting round the liquid main Waving their gold and silver pinions, Bear her o'er their deep dominions, While infant Loves and young desires Dancing 'mid the choral choirs Clasp the beauteous Queen around And sail in triumph o'er the bright profound.

ANACREON'S FIRST ODE

[From _The Western Review_ (Lexington, March, 1821)]

I would Atrides' glory tell, I would to Cadmus strike my shell; I try the vocal cords--in vain! Love, only love, breathes through the strain. I strip away the truant wire, And string with deeper chords the lyre, Then great Alcides' toils would sing: Soft love still sighs through every string. Hence, themes of Glory, hence! adieu! For what have I to do with you? My heart and lyre in union make Resounding Love and only Love.

HUMPHREY MARSHALL

Humphrey Marshall, author of the first _History of Kentucky_ that was in any wise comprehensive, was born near Warrenton, Virginia, in 1760. What little school instruction he received was from the young woman whom he afterwards married. Marshall removed to Kentucky in 1782, after having served as an officer in the Revolutionary War. He was a member of the Virginia convention of 1788, as a representative of the district of Kentucky, which adopted the Federal constitution. Marshall was in the Kentucky legislature for several terms and, from 1795 to 1801, he was United States Senator from Kentucky. Some years later he was again in the State legislature; and at about that time his famous duel with Henry Clay took place. The first edition of his _History of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, 1812), appeared in a single volume of 407 pages; but the second and final edition was greatly revised and augmented and published in two octavo volumes (Frankfort, 1824). Humphrey Marshall's pen was pointed with poison for his enemies (and he had more of them than any other Kentuckian of his time, perhaps), and in his book he lashed them ruthlessly. He was the first as well as the last of Kentucky's "personal" historians. He first endeavored to silence his foes with newspapers and pamphlets, but, not being satisfied with the results, he poured out his wrath in book form to the extent of a thousand pages and more. While prejudice is the most descriptive word possible to use in characterizing Marshall's work, it is not all prejudice. He wrote with wonderful keenness concerning the Spanish conspiracy in Kentucky, his views upon the men that were guilty of bartering Kentucky to Spain in order to obtain free navigation of the Mississippi river having been abundantly affirmed by the latest historical work upon that subject. He also wrote of the Burr conspiracy with great clearness of vision, all of which is very remarkable when one stops to consider that nearly every one of the men connected with these two conspiracies were his bitterest enemies. That Marshall was an able writer all of the Kentucky historians have freely admitted, notwithstanding the fact they have quarreled with his "copy" many times. He is, as his biographer writes, "the stormy petrel of Kentucky's earlier years," a most remarkable man from several points of view. His _History of Kentucky_, in either edition, is rather scarce at this time, and it is not to be found in many of the rare book shops of the country. Humphrey Marshall died at Lexington, Kentucky, July 3, 1841. He lies buried upon the banks of the Kentucky river, near the capitol of the Commonwealth, Frankfort.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, Kentucky, 1882); _Life and Times of Hon. Humphrey Marshall_, by A. C. Quisenberry (Winchester, Kentucky, 1892).

PRIMEVAL KENTUCKY

[From _The History of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1824, v. i)]

The country, once seen, held out abundant inducements to be re-visited, and better known. Among the circumstances best adapted to engage the attention, and impress the feelings of the adventurous hunters of North Carolina, may be selected the uncommon fertility of the soil, and the great abundance of wild game, so conspicuous at that time. And we are assured that the effect lost nothing of the cause. Forests those hunters had seen--mountains they had ascended--valleys they had traversed--deer they had killed--and bears they had successfully hunted. They had heard the howl of the wolf; the whine of the panther; and the heart-rending yell of the savage man; with correspondent sensations of delight, or horror. But these were all lost to memory, in the contemplation of Kentucky; animated with all the enchanting variety, and adorned with all the majestic grace and boldness of nature's creative energy. To nature's children, she herself is eloquent, and affecting. Never before had the feelings of these rude hunters experienced so much of the pathetic, the sublime, or the marvellous. Their arrival on the plains of Elkhorn was in the dawn of summer; when the forests, composed of oaks of various kinds, of ash, of walnut, cherry, buck-eye, hackberry, sugar trees, locust, sycamore, coffee tree, and an indefinite number of other trees, towering aloft to the clouds, overspread the luxuriant undergrowth, with their daily shade; while beneath, the class of trees--the shrubs, the cane, the herbage, and the different kinds of grass, and clover, interspersed with flowers, filled the eye, and overlaid the soil, with the forest's richest carpet. The soil itself, more unctuous and fertile than Egypt's boasted Delta, from her maternal bosom, gave copious nutriment; and in rich exuberance sustained the whole, in matchless verdure.

Here it was, if Pan ever existed, that without the aid of fiction, he held his sole dominion, and Sylvan empire, unmolested by Ceres, or Lucina, for centuries.

The proud face of creation here presented itself, without the disguise of art. No wood had been felled; no field cleared; no human habitation raised: even the red man of the forest had not put up his wigwam of poles and bark for habitation. But that mysterious Being, whose productive power we call Nature, ever bountiful, and ever great--had not spread out this replete and luxurious pasture without stocking it with numerous flocks and herds: nor were their ferocious attendants, who prey upon them, wanting, to fill up the circle of created beings. Here was seen the timid deer; the towering elk; the fleet stag; the surly bear; the crafty fox; the ravenous wolf; the devouring panther; the insidious wild-cat; and the haughty buffaloe: besides innumerable other creatures, winged, fourfooted, or creeping. And here, at some time unknown, had been, for his bones are yet here, the leviathan of the forest, the monstrous mammoth; whose trunk, like that of the famous Trojan horse, would have held an host of men; and whose teeth, nine feet in length, inflicted death and destruction, on both animals and vegetable substances--until exhausting all within its range, itself became extinct. Nor is it known, although the race must have abounded in the country, from the great number of bones belonging to the species, found in different places, that there is one of the kind living on the American continent, if in the universe.

STEPHEN T. BADIN

Stephen Theodore Badin, Kentucky's earliest Catholic bard, was born at Orleans, France, in 1768. Though very poor he received a classical and theological training in Paris and Tours; and in 1792 he emigrated to America. In the following year Badin was ordained by Bishop John Carroll at Baltimore, he being the first Roman Catholic priest ordained in the United States. He was subsequently appointed to do missionary work in Kentucky, which was then in the old Baltimore diocese, and he made his home at Georgetown, Kentucky. During the next few years Badin rode more than one hundred thousand miles on horseback in order to meet all of his appointments. He was then the only Catholic priest in Kentucky, though he did have assistants from time to time. In 1797 Badin was made vicar-general, and the large Catholic emigrations from Maryland to Kentucky about this time greatly increased his labors. His _Principles of Catholics_ (1805) was the first Catholic book published in the West, and it gave him a larger audience than his voice could well reach. Badin later organized missions and built churches in Louisville and Lexington, St. Peter's in Lexington being made possible by the generosity of his Protestant friends, of whom he had many. Badin and Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget, of the Bardstown diocese, had a misunderstanding as to the settlement of titles to certain church properties which Badin had acquired before Flaget came to Kentucky, and, rather than to have an acrimonious argument with the Bishop, he quit Kentucky, in 1819, and spent the next nine years in European travel. From 1830 to 1836 he worked among the Pottawatomie Indians in Indiana with marked success. Father Badin died at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1853. He was the author of several Latin poems in hexameters, among them being _Carmen Sacrum_, a translation of which was published at Frankfort; _Epicedium_, an elegy upon the death of Col. Joseph Hamilton Daviess at the battle of Tippecanoe; and _Sanctissimae Trinitatis Laudes et Invocatis_ (Louisville, 1843). His brief in memoriam for Colonel Daviess is his best known work and, perhaps, his masterpiece.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Sketches of Early Catholic Missions in Kentucky_, by M. J. Spalding (Louisville, 1846); _The Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky_, by B. J. Webb (Louisville, 1884).

EPICEDIUM

In Gloriosam Mortem Magnanimi Equitum Ducis Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Patrii Amoris Victimæ In Tippecanoe Pugna ad Amnem Wabaschum, 7. Die Nov. 1811. Epicedium; Honorabili Viro Joanni Rowan Meo Ipsiusque Amico Dicatum.

[From _The Kentucky Gazette_ (February 18, 1812)]

Autumnus felix aderat granaria complens Frugibus; umbrosas patulis jam frondibus ulmos Exuerat brumoe proprior, cum Fama per orbem Non rumore vago fatalia nuncia defert: "Sub specie pacis Slyvæcola perfidus atra "Nocte viros inopino plumbo occidit et hasta; "Dux equitum triplici confossus vulnere, fortis "Occubuit; turmoe hostiles periere fugatoe, "Hostilesque casas merito ultrix flamma voravit." Mensibus Æstivis portenderat ista Cometes Funera; Terra quatit repetitis motibus; ægre Volvit sanguineas Wabaschus tardior undas Ingeminant Dryades suspiria longa; Hymenoeus Deficit audita clade, et solatia spernit Omnia; triste silet Musarum turba; fidelis Luget Amicities, lugubri tegmine vestit Et caput et lævam, desiderioque dalentis Non pudor aut modus est. Lacrymas at fundere inanes Quid juvat? Heu lacrymis nil Fata moventur acerba! Ergo piæ Themidis meliora oracula poscunt Unanimes; diram causam Themis aure benigna Excipit, et mox decretum pronunciat oequum: "Davidis effigies nostra appendatur in aula; "Tempora sacra viri quercus civilis adornet, "Ac non immeritam jungat Victoria laurum. "Signa sui Legislator det publica luctus; Historioe chartis referat memorabile Clio. "Prælium, et alta locum cyparissus contegat umbra. "Tristis Hymen pretiosa urna cor nobile servet; "Marmoreo reliquos cineres sincera sepulcro "Condat Amicities; præsens venturaque laudet "Ætas magnanimum David, virtute potentem "Eloquii, belli et pacis decus immortale." Vita habet angustos fines, et gloria nullos: Qui patrioe reddunt vitam, illi morte nec ipsa Vincuntur; virtutum exempla nepotibus extant. Pro Patria vitam profundere maxima laus est.

Stephanus Theodorus Badin, Cathol. Mission.

Moerens canebat 15. Dec. 1811.

A TRANSLATION BY "WOODFORDENSIS"

[From the same]

On the glorious death of Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Commander of the Horse, who fell a victim to his love of country, in the late battle on the Wabash, the 7th. Nov., 1811. Dedicated to John Rowan, Esq.

'Twas late in autumn, and the thrifty swain In spacious barns secur'd the golden grain; November's chilly mornings breath'd full keen; No leafy honors crown'd the sylvan scene. When Fame with those sad tidings quickly flew Throughout our land; (her tale, alas! too true): "The savage Indian, our perfidious foe, Pretending peace with hypocritic show, Surpris'd our legions in the dead of night And urg'd with lead and steel the mortal fight; Our valiant warriors strew th' ensanguin'd plain, Ev'n our great Captain of the Horse is slain With triple wound!!! At length the foe retires, With loss; and leaves his town to our avenging fires."

When summer gilded our nocturnal sky With astral gems; a comet blazed on high, Portentous of these fates!--the earth, in throes Repeated labors; rueful Wabash flows With slower current, stain'd with mingling blood! The _Dryads_ fill with plaints the echoing wood! Hymen, the slaughter heard, dissolves in grief! Naught can console him, naught can yield relief. In woeful silence sits the muses' train And Friendship mourns her fav'rite hero slain. The funeral crape, vain badge of grief! she wears Upon her head, her arms the emblem bears, Her sorrowing mind no moderation knows, Admits no measure to her boundless woes.