Once, leaping in a murderous cave
He saved her from an outlaw band,
And with such tenderness she chid
When twice he kissed her lily hand.

With the sweet burden as he flew
He dared to gaze upon her face,
And she forgave him, though he drew
Closer and closer the embrace.

Why shook the fair form with alarm?
The proud Earl Say to meet her came,
And shrinking from that boyish arm,

Her cheek grew darkly red with shame!
And he, scarce knowing what he did,
But feeling that his heart was broke,
Fled from her pitying glance and hid
In the cold shadows of that oak.

Where, as he said, she came at night
And clasped him from the bitter air,
With her soft arms of tender white,
And the dark beauty of her hair.

But when the morning lit the spray,
And hung its soft wreaths o'er his head,

The lovely lady passed away

Thro' mist of glory, pale and red.

So bitter grew his heaving sighs,

So mournful dark the glance he raised,

I looked upon him earnestly,

And saw the gentle boy was crazed!

How fair he was! it made me sad,
And soft as sad my bosom grew,
To think no earthly hand could build
That beautiful ruin up anew.

But pointing where the full moon's light
Lay redly on the village hills,
I told him that my hearth that night
Was brighter;-How my bosom thrills,

Remembering how he hid his face

In earth's cold bosom, cold and bare, And told me of the warm embrace

That meekly, sweetly kept him there.

Closer the dismal raven croaks

Flutters the wild bird nigh and nigher,—

A colder shadow than the oak's

Has stilled that bosom's pulse of fire.

ART. XII.-REVIEW OF THE FREE SOIL MOVEMENT.

1. Causes of the movement.

2. Proceedings of the Baltimore and Philadelphia Conventions.

3. Proceedings of the Columbus and Utica Conventions. 4. Principles of the Free Soil Party.

Pure men are generally the founders of parties. But experience proves that after a party is established, its original leaders cease to be its active spirits; because, being men who serve the Public instead of Self, they readily relapse into quietude, when they see the Cause moving on in the hands of active leaders-not suspecting that they are laboring more for individual exaltation than for the promotion of the common good. Consequently the party degenerates from its original purity until it is found to be entirely controlled by individuals vulgarly called Demagogues, Party Hacks, Wireworkers, Sappers and Logrollers. Persons of indefinite character consecrate their time to the management of the people's business, expecting to be rewarded by the people's votes. They associate freely with those who dwell on the lowest plane of human existence, ministering to their caprices, gratifying their whims, and pandering to their vicious tastes. They make themselves heroes among the low, and get such an influence among them as to become petty princes, whom it will not do to overlook, and whose favor the ambitious above them must court, for the sake of individual aggrandizement. At this stage of Partyism we find a general prostitution of happy influences; and instead of doing the people good by helping them to a higher plane, the leaders study their weaknesses, and aim to gratify them. We thus find passions and feelings that should be subdued, strengthened, and the cause of virtue injured.

This political degeneracy we find sitting aloft in our legislative halls. Resolutions are introduced, and bills are passed, not so much with reference to the public as the party service; and instead of a broad philanthrophy and an expansive patriotism pervading the Legislative Assemblies, we find the narrow spirit of party, like the hundred-handed Briarius, moving all things, controlling all things. Should a bill be introduced promising

some great moral or physical improvement, the lowest class of managers at once seize upon, and sacrifice it in the curses they excite among the vile and the selfish, who cannot appreciate any important public improvement. One party, therefore, fears to move for fear of the lower class, and thus True Legislation is set at defiance in awe of the vulgar. If good men were allowed to rule, they would readily persuade the low, of the value of good legislation, and thus secure the highest interests of the country; but as intimated above, the good and pure have not courted the favor of the low by vile means, and their influence is nothing among them. Unfortunate is the condition of the country, when matters are carried to this pass! Low indeed are the morals of Politics when base influences are thus permitted to rule!

But when Selfishness so far controls all questions of State or National importance, that the most prominent men can be bought and sold like the meanest drug in the market; when the Statesmen of one section will sacrifice what they know to be the interests of Truth and the desire of their constituents, for the sake of votes in another section; in short, when private policy is allowed to govern public conscience, a new movement is demanded to correct abuses and regenerate the politics of the Nation. The Cincinnatus who retired to private life after having planted strong foundations for National peace and National prosperity, must now be called from this repose by the exigency of public affairs, to point the people to Truth and the Country, and emancipate them from the party servitude in which they have been bound.

In this condition of selfish rule and Party degeneracy, has the Republic suffered for at least a quarter of a century. During this period, no act of party enormity has met with rebuke from even the most honest and independent actors in the party. Scarcely an editor of a partizan sheet, whose character has ever been considered above reproach, has ventured to write and print the condemnation of wrong, when it has fallen in the pathway of his party. The effort has been rather to apologise for the wrong, and even by sophistry, to convince the undiscerning that it is not a wrong; while on the other hand, the struggle has been to bring even the virtue of the opposite party into disrepute. The most deceptive reasoning has pervaded the political press of both parties, and this has been called by the intelligent partizans one of the tricks of Politics, and should not be con

sidered immoral, though it be the grossest dishonesty; and if the criminality of conduct is to be measured by the injury it occasions, there are no epithets too severe to be applied to this political jugglery. A single theft, a single burglary, or even a single murder is nothing to the demoralization of a nation, and thus enlarging the sewer of all crimes known among men.

The politics of the Republic have thus been coming to a crisis for many years. The people have been conciliated several times by the most liberal promises and the strongest assurances. When on the eve of an open rebellion against the wrongs inflicted upon them, they have been persuaded to cling to the party and trust it once more; and to aid in this mode of conciliation, they have been pointed to the probable success of the opposing faction should they desert their old connection. This has generally been successful; for prejudice has been such, that the prospect of the success of those they had been taught to believe their political foes has infused a kind of terror among them, and sent the disaffected, cowering back to their traces.

But the spirit of opposition has been cherished by a few who have felt degraded by thus sacrificing their independence, until they could no longer endure the monster fraud, and the Buffalo storm gathered in the political horizon, like that in the natural, to purify the elements and render the atmosphere healthful.They set forth their grievances, and the quiet citizens responded to their complaints and rallied to their standard.

We now come directly to the Free Soil Movement; and though we acknowledge in the outset, that our sympathies are with this movement, yet we hope to be able to treat it candidly, doing no injustice to others, nor excusing or palliating in any way, the follies that the Free Soilers have already committed. The Free Soiler need not expect to find here a wholesale laudation of the Movement; neither need the Whig or the old Democrat expect to find here a universal falsehood concerning their measures and their movements.

We will first name briefly the causes that led to this Move

ment'.

1. The first cause has already been considered in the introduction of this paper; to-wit, the political degeneracy and party corruption of the times. Individuals have been found faithful to Truth, and have denounced the wrongs to which we have referred; but they have found no followers because the people had all been drilled in the party platoons, and they found it difficult

to break the lines. Their denunciations, however, have not fallen entirely lifeless; for the spirit of opposition has been increased thereby, until the avalanche had gathered strength enough to threaten destruction to the powers of wrong. Soon as the masses can be rallied and convinced that they are putting their faith in false friends, and their true interests betrayed, they will look to other leaders to guide them through the Red Sea and the Wilderness, that separate them from the Promised Land.

2. Slavery. Many individuals of the Free States who regarded this institution as the grossest wrong to its victims, and a living lie upon the spirit of the Republic, had long watched its progress, and discussed the means of Emancipation. They had long been convinced that under the old party organizations nothing could be expected for the restriction of this evil. They saw the interests of Freedom sacrificed on the altar of ambition, for it would not do for political aspirants to oppose an institution dear to the pecuniary interests of a large portion of the country, and held sacred to selfishness. To break up those organizations that could not stand without the support of slavery, has done much to bring up the New Movement. It was thought a libel on the progress of the age to wink at the increasing strength of an institution which the Fathers of the Republic desired to overcome.

But on this question of slavery we are compelled in respect of Truth to say, that much of what may be called the humbug has mingled with its discussion. For instance, it is said that the South has monopolized most of the government patronage of the country, and therefore the North should array itself against the South. This is an appeal to the selfishness of the North, and it has excited much of unnecessary bitterness. The cause of Truth needs no such aid; indeed it is injured by it. We are not disposed to quarrel with the South on this subject. If she has obtained more years of official service than has the North, it is either because she has been more attentive to her own interests, or has furnished the nation with men better qualified to govern. Force of character will always maintain the supremacy, and if the North has been second in public affairs, it is her own fault, with, perhaps, some selfishness on the part of the South. The less we say on this matter the better; for the facts only show our own stupidity, which the less we cause it to be proclaimed, the better for our credit abroad. The great