The Anarchiad A New England Poem |
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| 7. | AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.—No. VII.
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 | The Anarchiad |  |
AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.—No. VII.
EXTRACT FROM THE ANARCHIAD, BOOK XII.
In this Book the Anarch, on the first success of his mobs in demolishing the courts of justice, institutes heroic games, after the ancient epic manner. Among other extraordinary contests, a prize is proposed to those of his heroes who would see farthest into total darkness, and shut their eyes longest to the clear light of day. Wronghead is the sole conqueror in this game, and is, thereupon, rewarded by the Anarch with a pair of spectacles, which showed every object inverted, and wrapped in a mist of darkness. On this occasion, Tweedle, a poet, reared under the patronage of Copper, and now principal bard of his chaotic majesty, filled with the poetic flatus, bursts forth with an eulogium on the victor:
Judge, General, Delegate, or Registrar,
Whether thou choose the high Comptroller's air,
Or frown more grimly in thy Council chair;
At Congress rail or vindicate the mob;
Thou millpede of office, hear my lays,
And aid the bard that sings thy welcome praise!
The Judge unfetter'd by the rules of law;
The self-taught General, valiant to control
The dangerous passions of the daring soul;
In Compo's scene, whose Christian spirit shone,
Spar'd the foes' lives, and gladly screen'd his own,
Or sing in strains unus'd to mortal ear,
Th'unletter'd Statesman and Anarchian seer.
Thine the dread task, on thy immortal plan,
From federal ties to guard the rights of man;
At power's deep root to lay the patriot ax,
Oppose the impost and prevent the tax;
Bid depreciation pay the public debt,
And teach the noblest art, the art to cheat;
Thro' all the States thy dark'ning mists to spread,
And shroud their scenes in chaotic shade;
O'er their true interest close the curtain draw,
Hide them from light and cover them from law;
With jealous arts misguide the wayward throng,
Supremely blind, and obstinately wrong!
With insect ken to local views confin'd,
Display thy pigmy penury of mind;
“The State surrounding with thy wall of brass;”
Bid insurrection claim thy noblest praise,
O'er Washington exalt thy darling Shays;
With thy contagion, embryo mobs inspire,
And blow to tenfold rage the kindling fire;
Till the wide realm of discord bow the knee,
And hold true faith in Anarch and in thee.
The scourge of Congress, and the dread of laws;
May never age, pain, sickness, or despair
Attack thy life with unsuccessful war;
Or late, when all thy race of fame is run,
All parts accomplish'd, and all duties done—
Proud rulers crush'd by thy supreme decree—
Our Governor, Council, Judges, men like thee;
Our debts all cancel'd in one fav'ring hour,
And Congress bared of every plume of power;
Their requisitions, by thy bold attack,
Sunk in the whirlpool of the gen'ral wreck;
From dreadful arts of Cincinnati free,
All souls reduc'd, that e'er presum'd to shine,
To one just level, and the rank of thine;
This world forsaking, fairly may'st thou rise
Above the earth, and pointing to the skies;
While the great finisher of mortal strife,
Shall close thy glories with the line of life;
Where seraphs, then, in brighter regions burn,
Go thou, a glowing seraph, in thy turn;
With souls congenial, in those realms that dwell,
Receive the meed you long deserv'd so well;
Then draw thy comrades, in the closing string,
And glad those regions with the sons you bring;
And in thy patriot bosom yield a room
For all the race of Wrongheads yet to come.
A certain great patriot lately declared, in public company, that he looked upon Shays as the greatest military character that America ever produced. The same gentleman has often asserted that the good people of Massachusetts where wholly unable to pay their taxes, and labored under intolerable grievances by the impositions of government.
At the close of the war, and previous to their final separation, the officers of the army constituted themselves into a society, called the Order of the Cincinnati, after the Roman Cincinnatus, who left his plow to repel the invaders of his country. This Order,—an imitation, in some respects, of the European orders of knighthood, and distinguished, like them, by its appropriate ornaments and badges,—was to be perpetuated through the eldest male descendants of the original members, or, falling such descendants, by the admission of such collateral relatives as might be deemed worthy. There was also a provision for admitting a proportion of leading persons not connected with the army. This Order excited a vast deal of jealousy, as tending towards hereditary aristocracy; and a great outcry was raised against it in all parts of the country. Subsequently the hereditary feature of the Order was abolished; but the organization still remained obnoxious to many. The authors of The Anarchiad were members of the State Society of the Cincinnati, and Colonel Trumbull was Secretary.
| The Anarchiad | |